all their extent; nor shall we mention the benefits that may be derived from it by those who have turned their views to other sciences than that of theology, and its more peculiar utility to such as are engaged in the study of the civil law. All this would lead us too far from our present design. XXII. As the history of the church is External or Internal, so the manner of treating it must be suited to that division. As to the first, when the narration is long, and the thread of the history runs through a great number of ages, it is proper to divide it into certain periods, which will give the reader time to breathe, assist memory, and also introduce a certain method and order into the work. In the following history the usual division into centuries is adopted in preference to all others, because most generally approved, though it may be attended with difficulties and inconveniences. XXIII. A considerable part of these inconveniences will be however removed, if, beside this smaller division into centuries, we adopt a larger one, and divide the space of time that elapsed between the birth of Christ and our days into certain grand periods, which were distinguished by signal revolutions or remarkable events. It is on this account that we have judged it expedient to comprehend the following History in Four Books, which will embrace four remarkable periods. The First will be employed in exhibiting the state and vicissitudes of the Christian church, from its commencement to the time of Constantine the Great. The Second will comprehend the period that extends from the reign of Constantine to that of Charlemagne, which produced such a remarkable change in the face of Europe. The Third will contain the History of the Church, from the time of Charlemagne to the memorable period when Luther arose in Germany, to oppose the tyranny of Rome, and to deliver divine truth from the darkness that covered it. And the Fourth will carry down the same history, from the rise of Luther to the present times. XXIV. We have seen above, that the sphere of Ecclesiastical History is extensive, that it comprehends a great variety of objects, and embraces political as well as religious matters, so far as the former are related to the latter, either as causes or effects. But, however great the diversity of these objects may be, they are closely connected; and it is the particular business of an ecclesiastical historian to observe a method that will show this connexion in the most conspicuous point of view, and form into one regular whole a variety of parts that seem heterogeneous and discordant. Different writers on this subject have followed different methods, according to the diversity of their views and their peculiar manner of thinking. The order I have observed will be seen above in that part of this Introduction, which treats of the subjectmatter of Ecclesiastical History; the mention of it is therefore omitted here, to avoid unne cessary repetitions. CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, FROM ITS ORIGIN, TO THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. PART I. COMPREHENDING THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. Concerning the Civil and Religious State of the World at the Birth of CHRIST. evils which thence arose we may justly reckon the formidable armies, that were necessary to support these extortions in the provinces, and the civil wars which frequently broke out between the oppressed nations and their haughty conquerors. I. A GREAT part of the world was subject to the Roman empire, when JESUS CHRIST made his appearance upon earth. The remoter nations which had submitted to the yoke III. It must, at the same time, be acknowof this mighty empire, were ruled either by ledged, that this supreme dominion of one Roman governors invested with temporary people, or rather of one man, over so many commissions, or by their own princes and laws, kingdoms, was attended with many consideraîn subordination to the republic, whose sove- ||ble advantages to mankind in general, and to reignty was to be acknowledged, and from the propagation and advancement of Christiwhich the conquered kings, who were continued anity in particular; for, by the means of this in their dominions, derived their borrowed almost universal empire, many nations, differmajesty. At the same time, the Roman peo-ent in their languages and their manners, were ple and their venerable senate, though they more intimately united in social intercourse. had not lost all shadow of liberty, were in Hence a passage was opened to the remotest reality reduced to a state of servile submis- countries, by the communications which the sion to Augustus Cæsar, who, by artifice, per-Romans formed between the conquered profidy, and bloodshed, had acquired an enor- vinces.* Hence also the nations, whose manmous degree of power, and united in his own ners were savage and barbarous, were civilized person the pompous titles of emperor, sove-by the laws and commerce of the Romans. reign pontiff, censor, tribune of the people, proconsul; in a word, all the great offices of the state.* And by this, in short, the benign influence of letters and philosophy was spread abroad in countries which had lain before under the II. The Roman government, considered both darkest ignorance. All this contributed, no with respect to its form and its laws, was doubt, in a singular manner, to facilitate the certainly mild and equitable. But the in-progress of the Gospel, and to crown the la justice and avarice of the prætors and pro- bours of its first ministers and heralds with consuls, and the ambitious lust of conquest success.† and dominion, which was the predominant IV. The Roman empire, at the birth of passion of the Roman people, together with Christ, was less agitated by wars and tumults, the rapacious proceedings of the publicans, by than it had been for many years before; for, whom the taxes of the empire were levied, though I cannot assent to the opinion of those were the occasions of perpetual tumults and in-who, following the account of Orosius, mainsupportable grievances; and among the many *See for this purpose the learned work of Augustin Campianus, entitled, De Officio et Potestate Magistratuum Romanorum et Jurisdictione, lib. i. cap. i. p. 3, 4, &c. Geneva, 1725. + See Moyle's Essay on the Constitution of the Roman Government, in the posthumous works of that author, vol. i. as also Scip. Maffei Verona illustrata, lib. i. tain that the temple of Janus was then shut, and that wars and discords absolutely ceased H: Chr. mo throughout the world,* yet it is certain, that the period, in which our Saviour descended upon earth, may be justly styled the Pacific Age, if we compare it with the preceding times; and indeed the tranquillity that then reigned, was necessary to enable the ministers of Christ to execute, with success, their sublime commission to the human race. tions both of nature and art.* Each people also had particular manner of worshipping and appeasing their respective deities, entirely different from the sacred rites of other countries. In process of time, however, the Greeks and Romans became as ambitious in their religious pretensions, as in their political claims. They maintained that their gods, though under different names, were the objects of religious worship in all nations, and therefore they gave the names of their deities to those of other countries. This pretension, whether supported by ignorance or other means, introduced inexpressible darkness and perplexity into the history of the ancient superstitions, and has been also the occasion of innumerable errors in the writings of the learned. V. The want of ancient records renders it impossible to say any thing satisfactory or certain concerning the state of those nations, who did not receive the Roman yoke; nor, indeed, is their history essential to our present purpose. It is sufficient to observe, with respect to them, that those who inhabited the eastern regions were strangers to the sweets of liberty, and groaned under the burthen of an oppressive yoke. Their softness and effemiVIII. One thing, indeed, which, at first nacy, both in point of manners and bodily sight, appears very remarkable, is, that this constitution, contributed to make them sup-variety of religions and of gods neither proport their slavery with an unmanly patience; and even the religion they professed riveted their chains. On the contrary, the northern nations enjoyed, in their frozen dwellings, the blessings of sacred freedom, which their government, their religion, a robust and vigorous frame of body and spirit, derived from the inclemency and severity of their climate, all united to preserve and maintain.† VL All these nations lived in the practice of the most abominable superstitions; for, though the notion of one Supreme Being was not entirely effaced in the human mind, but showed itself frequently, even through the darkness of the grossest idolatry; yet all nations, except that of the Jews, acknowledged a number of governing powers, whom they called gods, and one or more of which they supposed to preside over each particular province or people. They worshipped these ficti"tious deities with various rites; they considered them as widely different from each other in sex and power, in their nature, and also in their respective offices; and they appeased them by a multiplicity of ceremonies and of ferings, in order to obtain their protection and favour; so that, however different the degrees of enormity might be, with which this absurd and impious theology appeared in different countries, yet there was no nation, whose sacred rites and religious worship did not discover a manifest abuse of reason, and very striking marks of extravagance and folly. duced wars nor dissensions among the different nations, the Egyptians excepted. Nor is it, perhaps, necessary to except even them, since their wars undertaken for their gods cannot, with propriety, be considered as wholly of a religious nature. Each nation suffered its neighbours to follow their own method of worship, to adore their own gods, to enjoy their own rites and ceremonies; and discovered no displeasure at their diversity of sentiments in religious matters. There is, however, little wonderful in this spirit of mutual toleration, when we consider, that they all looked upon the world as one great empire, divided into various provinces, over every one of which a * See the discourse of Athanasius, entitled, Oratio contra Gentes, in the first volume of his works. This fact affords a satisfactory account of the vast number of gods who bore the name of Jupiter, and the multitudes that passed under those of Mercury, Venus, Hercules, Juno, &c. The Greeks, when they found, in other countries, deities that resembled their own, persuaded the worshippers of these foreign gods, that their deities were the same with those who were honourthat this was the case. In consequence of this, they gave ed in Greece, and were, indeed, themselves convinced the names of their gods to those of other nations, and the Romans in this followed their example. Hence we find the names of Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, &c. frequently mentioned in the more recent monuments and inscriptions which have been found among the Gauls and Germans, though the ancient inhabitants of those countries worshipped no gods under such denominations. I cannot think that this method of the Greeks and Romans has introduced so much confusion into mythology as Dr. Mosheim here imagines. If indeed there had been no resemblance between the Greek and Roman deities, and VII. Every nation then had its respective those of other nations, and if the names of the deities of gods, over which presided one more excellent the former had been given to those of the latter in an than the rest, yet in such a manner that this arbitrary and undistinguishing manner, the reflection of our historian would be undeniably true. But it has been supreme deity was himself controlled by the alleged by many learned men, with a high degree of rigid empire of the fates, or what the philoso- probability, that the principal deities of all nations resembled each other extremely in their essential characters; phers called Eternal Necessity. The gods of and if so, their receiving the same names could not inthe East were different from those of the troduce much confusion into mythology, since they were Gauls, the Germans, and other northern na-probably derived from one common source. If the Thor tions. The Grecian divinities differed widely from those of the Egyptians, who deified plants, animals, and a great variety of the produc * See Jo. Massoni Templum Jani, Christo nascente, reseratum, Roterodami, 1706. "Fere itaque imperia (says Seneca) penes eos fuere populos, qui mitiore cœlo utuntur: in frigora septemtrionemque vergentibus immansueta ingenia sunt, ut ait poeta, suoque simillima cœlo." Seneca de Ira, lib. ii cap. xvi. of the ancient Celts was the same in dignity, character, and attributes, with the Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans, where was the impropriety of giving the same name? Ingenious observations are to be found upon this head in the Expositio Mensa Isiacæ of Pignorius. The religious wars of the Egyptians were not undertaken to compel others to adopt their worship, but to avenge the slaughter that was made of their gods, such as crocodiles, &c., by the neighbouring nations. They were not offended at their neighbours for serving other divinities, but could not bear that they should put theirs to death. certain order of divinities presided; and that, therefore, none could behold with contempt the gods of other nations, or force strangers to pay homage to theirs. The Romans exercised this toleration in the amplest manner; for, though they would not allow any changes to be made in the religions that were publicly professed in the empire, nor any new form of worship to be openly introduced, yet they granted to their citizens a full liberty of observing, in private, the sacred rites of other nations, and of honouring foreign deities (whose worship contained nothing inconsistent with the interests and laws of the republic) with feasts, temples, consecrated groves, and the like testimonies of homage and respect.* IX. The deities of almost all nations were either ancient heroes, renowned for noble exploits and beneficent deeds, or kings and generals who had founded empires, or women rendered illustrious by remarkable actions or useful inventions. The merit of these distinguished and eminent persons, contemplated by their posterity with an enthusiastic gratitude, was the reason of their being exalted to celestial honours. The natural world furnished another kind of deities, who were added to these by some nations; and as the sun, moon, and stars, shine forth with a lustre superior to that of all other material beings, so it is certain, that they particularly attracted the attention of mankind, and received religious homage from almost all the nations of the world.† From these beings of a nobler kind, idolatry descended into an enormous multiplication of inferior powers; so that, in many countries, mountains, trees, and rivers, the earth, the sea, and the winds, and even virtues, vices, and diseases, had their shrines attended by devout and zealous worshippers. X. These deities were honoured with rites and sacrifices of various kinds, according to their respective nature and offices.§ The rites used in their worship were absurd and ridicu *See concerning this interesting subject, a very curious and learned treatise of the famous Bynkershoek, entitled, Dissertatio de cultu peregrinæ religionis apud Romanos. This dissertation is to be found in the Opuscula of that excellent author, which were published at Leyden in the year 1719. †The ingenious editor of the Ruins of Balbec has given us, in the preface to that noble work, a very curious account of the origin of the religious worship that was offered to the heavenly bodies by the Syrians and Arabians. In those uncomfortable deserts, where the day presents nothing to the view, but the uniform, tedious, and melancholy prospect of barren sands, the night discloses a most delightful and magnificent spectacle, and appears arrayed with charms of the most attractive kind; for the most part unclouded and serene, it exhibits to the wondering eye the host of heaven, in all their amazing variety and glory. In the view of this stupendous scene, the transition from admiration to idolatry was too easy to uninstructed minds; and a people, whose climate offered no beauties to contemplate but those of the firmament, would naturally be disposed to look thither for the objects of their worship. The form of idolatry,|| in Greece, was different from that of the Syrians; and Mr. Wood ingeniously attributes this to that smiling and variegated seene of mountains, valleys, rivers, groves, woods, and fountains, which the transported imagination, in the midst of its pleasing astonishment, supposed to be the seats of invisible deities. See a farther account of this matter in the elegant work above mentioned. See the learned work of J. G. Vossius, de idololatria. See J. Saubertus, de sacrificiis veterum. Lug. Bat. 1699. VOL. I.-3 lous, and frequently cruel and obscene. Most nations offered animals, and some proceeded to the enormity of human sacrifices. As to their prayers, they were void of piety and sense, both with respect to their matter and their form.* Pontiffs, priests, and ministers, distributed into several classes, presided in this strange worship, and were appointed to prevent disorder in the performance of the sacred rites; but, pretending to be distinguished by an immediate intercourse and friendship with the gods, they abused their authority in the basest manner, to deceive an ignorant and wretched people. XI. The religious worship we have now been considering, was confined to stated times and places. The statues and other representations of the gods were placed in the temples,† and supposed to be animated in an incomprehensible manner; for the votaries of these fictitious deities, however destitute they might be of reason in other respects, avoided carefully the imputation of worshipping inanimate beings, such as brass, wood, and stone, and therefore pretended that the divinity, represented by the statue, was really present in it, if the dedication was duly and properly made. XII. But, besides the public worship of the gods, to which all without exception were admitted, certain rites were practised in secret by the Greeks and several eastern nations, to which a very small number had access. These were commonly called mysteries; and the persons who desired to be initiated therein, were obliged previously to exhibit satisfactory proofs of their fidelity and patience, by passing through various trials and ceremonies of the most disagreeable kind. These secrets were kept in the strictest manner, as the initiated could not reveal any thing that passed on those occasions, without exposing their lives to the most imminent danger;§ and that is the reason why, at this time, we are so little acquainted with the true nature, and the real design of these hidden rites. It is, however, well known, that in some of those mysteries, many things were transacted which were contrary both to real modesty and outward decency. And, indeed, from the whole of the pagan rites, the intelligent few might easily learn, that the divinities generally worshipped were rather men famous for their vices, than distinguished by virtuous and worthy deeds. XIII. It is, at least, certain, that this religion had not the least influence towards exciting or nourishing solid and true virtue in the minds of men. For the gods and goddesses, to whom public homage was paid, exhibited to their worshippers rather examples of egregious crimes, than of useful and illustrious vir * See M. Brouerius a Niedeck, de adorationibus veterum Populorum, printed at Utrecht in 1711. † Some nations were without temples, such as the Persians, Gauls, Germans, and Britons, who performed their religious worship in the open air, or in the shadowy retreats of consecrated groves. See Arnobius adv. Gentes, lib. vi.-Augustin de civitate Dei, lib. vii. cap. xxxiii. and the Misopogon of the Emperor Julian. See Clarkson on the Liturgies, sect. iv. and Meursius de Mysteriis Eleusiniis. See Cicero, Disput. Tusculan. lib. ii. cap. xiii tues. The gods, moreover, were esteemed few saw the cheat, they were obliged, from a superior to men in power and immortality; regard to their own safety, to laugh with caubut, in every thing else, they were considered tion, since the priests were ever ready to acas their equals.The priests were little solicit-cuse, before a raging and superstitious multious to animate the people to a virtuous con- tude, those who discovered their religious duct, either by their precepts or their exam- frauds, as rebels against the majesty of the ple. They plainly enough declared, that immortal gods. whatever was essential to the true worship of the gods, was contained only in the rites and institutions which the people had received by tradition from their ancestors. And as to what regarded the rewards of virtue and the punishment of vice after the present life, the general notions were partly uncertain, partly licentious, and often more calculated to administer indulgence to vice, than encouragement to virtue. Hence, the wiser part of mankind, about the time of Christ's birth, looked upon this whole system of religion as a | just object of ridicule and contempt. XIV. The consequences of this wretched theology were a universal corruption and depravity of manners, which appeared in the impunity of the most flagitious crimes. Juvenal and Persius among the Latins, and Lucian among the Greeks, bear testimony to the justice of this heavy accusation. It is also well known, that no public law prohibited the sports of the gladiators, the exercise of unnatural lusts, the licentiousness of divorce, the custom of exposing infants, and of procuring abortions, or the frontless atrocity of publicly consecrating stews and brothels to certain divinities.§ XVI. At the time of Christ's appearance upon earth, the religion of the Romans, as well as their arms, had extended itself over a great part of the world. This religion must be known to those who are acquainted with the Grecian superstitions.* In some things, indeed, it differs from them; for the Romans, beside the institutions which Numa and others had invented with political views, added several Italian fictions to the Grecian fables, and gave also to the Egyptian deities a place among their own.† XVII. In the provinces subjected to the Roman government, there arose a new kind of religion, formed by a mixture of the ancient rites of the conquered nations with those of the Romans. These nations, who, before their subjection, had their own gods, and their own particular religious institutions, were persuaded, by degrees, to admit into their worship a great number of the sacred rites and customs of their conquerors. The view of the Romans, in this change, was not only to confirm their authority by the powerful aid of religion, but also to abolish the inhuman rites which were performed by many of the barbarous nations who had received their yoke; and this change was effected partly by the prudence of the victors, partly by the levity of the vanquished, and by their ambition to please their new XV. Such as were not sunk in an unaccountable and brutish stupidity, perceived the deformity of these religious systems. To these, the crafty priests addressed two conside-masters. rations, to prevent their incredulity, and to XVIII. When, from the sacred rites of the dispel their doubts. The first was drawn from ancient Romans, we pass to a review of the the miracles and prodigies which they pre- other religions that prevailed in the world, we tended were daily wrought in the temples, be-shall find, that the most remarkable may be fore the statues of the gods and heroes that were placed there; and the second was deduced from oracles and divination, by which they maintained, that the secrets of futurity were unfolded through the interposition of the gods. In both these points the cunning of the priests imposed miserably upon the ignorance of the people; and, if the discerning *There is a very remarkable passage to this purpose in the Tristia of Ovid, lib. ii. "Quis locus est templis augustior? hæc quoque vitet, Sustulerit quare quæret Erichthonium." sect. vi. The corrupt manners of those who then lay in the darkness of idolatry are described in an ample and affecting manner, in the first of Cyprian's epistles. See also, on this subject, Cornel. Adami Exercitatio de malis Romanorum ante prædicationem Evangelii moribus. This is the fifth discourse of a collection published by that iearned writer at Groningen, in 1712. See Dr. John Leland's excellent account of the religious sentiments, moral conduct, and future prospects of the pagans, in his large work entitled, The Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation. properly divided into two classes. One of these will comprehend the religious systems that owed their existence to political views; and the other, those which seem to have been formed for military purposes. In the former class may be ranked the religions of most of the eastern nations, especially of the Persians, Egyptians, and Indians, which appear to have been solely calculated for the preservation of the state, the support of the royal authority and grandeur, the maintenance of public peace, and the advancement of civil virtues. Under the military class may be comprehended the religious system of the northern nations, since all the traditions that we find among the Germans, the Britons, the Celts, and the Goths, concerning their divinities, have a manifest tendency to excite and nourish fortitude and ferocity, an insensibility of danger, and a contempt of life. An attentive inquiry into the religions of these respective nations, will abundantly verify what is here asserted. XIX. None of these nations, indeed, ever arrived at such a universal excess of barbarism and ignorance, as not to have some discerning * See Dionysius Halicarn. Antiq. Rom. lib. vii. cap. Ixxii. + See Petit ad leges Atticas, lib. i. tît. i. |