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., to the fountain-head, to the true sources of who was one of the successors of Hormisdas, these idle inventions. They endeavoured to approved the proposition which the latter had seek their origin in reason and Christianity; condemned; and, confirming the opinion of but in this they deceived themselves, or, at the Scythian monks, exposed the decisions of least, deluded others, and delivered to the world the papal oracle to the laughter of the wise. their own fancies, instead of disclosing the true His sentence was afterwards sanctioned by the causes of things. Had they been acquainted fifth general council; and thus peace was re- with the opinions and customs of remote antistored to the church by the conclusion of these quity, or studied the pontifical law of the unintelligible disputes.† Greeks and Romans, they would have discovered the true origin of many institutions, which were falsely looked upon as venerable and sacred.

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 ques- III. The public worship of God was still cetion the Scythian monks maintained the af-lebrated by every nation in its own language, firmative, and their adversaries the negative. but was enlarged, from time to time, by the addition of various hymns, and other things of that nature, which were considered as proper

CHAPTER IV.

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 ferent sorts of supplications, the stations or assacred writings were images of mysterious and semblies of Gregory, the forms of consecration, invisible things; for such as embrace this chi- and other such institutions, which were conmerical system will easily be led to express all trived, in this century, to excite a species of the doctrines and precepts of religion by exter-external devotion, and to engage the outward nal 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

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 16- *The deacon Victor, and those who opposed the Christians first began to consider these sacred Scythian monks, expressed their opinion in the following edifices as the means of purchasing the favour proposition: viz. One person of the Trinity suffered in and protection of the saints, and to be persuadthe flesh. Both sides received the council of Chalcedon, ed that these departed spirits defended and acknowledged two natures in Christ, in opposition to Eutyches, and only one person in opposition to Nestorius; guarded, against evils and calamities of every and yet, by a torrent of jargon, and a long chain of un-kind, the provinces, lands, cities, and villages, intelligible syllogisms, the Scythian monks accused their in which they were honoured with temples. 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

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.

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, particu

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that trou-larly in Africa and Italy, where they felt, in a

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.

II. The Donatists enjoyed the sweets of freedom and tranquillity, as long as the Vandals reigned in Africa; but the scene was greatly changed with respect to them, when the empire of these barbarians was overturned in 534. They, however, still remained in a separate body, and not only held their church, but, to-|| ward the conclusion of this century, and particularly from the year 591, defended themselves with new degrees of animosity and vigour, and were bold enough to attempt the multiplication of their sect. Gregory, the Roman pontiff, opposed these efforts with great spirit and assiduity; and, as appears from his epistles, tried various methods of depressing this faction, which was pluming its wings anew, and aiming at the revival of those lamentable divisions which it had formerly excited in the church. Nor was the opposition of the zealous pontiff without effect; it seems on the 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.

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

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, extended their views, and spread their doctrines, with a success equal to the ardour of their zeal, through the provinces situated beyond the limits of the Roman empire. There are yet extant authentic records, from which it appears, that throughout Persia, as also in India, Armenia, Arabia, Syria, and other countries, there were vast numbers of Nestorian churches, all under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Seleucia. It is true, indeed, that the Persian monarchs were not all equally favourable to this growing sect, and that some of them even persecuted, with the utmost severity, all those who bore the Christian name throughout their dominions;§ but it is also true, that such of these princes, as were disposed to exercise moderation and benignity toward the Christians, were much more indulgent to the Nestorians, than to their adversaries who adhered to the council of Ephesus, since the latter were con

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

† 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 Ni275, and April. p. 134. cene council, in the Acta Sanctorum, tom. ii. Martii, p.

Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topograph. Christian. lib. ii. 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. ii

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. VII. Thus it happened, that, by the impruAfter the death of Anastasius, which happen-dent zeal and violence which the Greeks emed 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.§

ployed 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 sur-tioch. The Armenians are ruled by a bishop name of Baradæus, or Zanzalus, restored this of their own, and are distinguished by certain expiring sect to its former prosperity and lus-opinions and rites from the rest of the Monotre. This poor monk, the greatness of whose physites. 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,

Evagrius, Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. iii. cap. xxx. xliv., &c. Theodori Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. ii. p. 562. See also the Index Operum Severi, as it stands collected from ancient MSS. in Montfaucon's Bibliotheca Coisliniana, p. 53.

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

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, Ethiopicam, 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.

IX. Some of the Corrupticole (for so they were called who looked upon the body of Christ to be corruptible,) particularly Themistius, a deacon of Alexandria, and Theodosius, a bishop of that city, were led by the inconsiderate heat of controversy into another opinion, which produced new commotions in the church toward the conclusion of this century. They affirmed, that to the divine nature of Christ all things were known, but that from his human nature many things were concealed. The rest of the sect charged the authors of this opinion with imputing ignorance to the divine nature of Christ, since they held, that there was but one nature in the Son of God. Hence the votaries of this new doctrine were called Agnoeta; but their sect was so weak and ill-supported, that, notwithstanding their eloquence and activity,which seemed to promise better suc-nature.§ cess, it gradually declined, and came to nothing.

*Timotheus, de Receptione Hæreticorum, in Cotelerii Monumentis Ecclesiæ Græcæ, tom. iii. p. 409.--Liberatus, in Breviario Controv. cap. xx.-Forbesii Instructiones Historico-Theologica, lib. iii. cap. xviii. p. 108.Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental. tom. iii. part ii. p. † Biblioth. Orient. tom. ii. p. 22, and 168. Cotelerius, ad Monumenta Ecclesiæ Græcæ, tom. iii. p. 641.-Mich. le Quien, ad Damascenum de Hæresibus, tom. i. 107.-Forbes, Instructiones Historico-Theolog. p. 329. p. lib. iii. cap. xix. p. 119-Photius, Biblioth. Cod. 230.

THE SEVENTH CENTURY.

PART I.

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the prosperous Events which happened in the Church during this Century.

I. In this century the progress of Christianity was greatly accelerated both in the eastern and western hemispheres; and its divine light was widely diffused through the darkened nations. The Nestorians who dwelt in Syria, Persia, and India, contributed much to its propagation in the east, by the zeal and diligence, the laborious efforts and indefatigable assiduity, with which they preached it to those fierce and barbarous nations, who lived in the remotest regions and deserts of Asia, and among whom, as we learn from authentic records, their ministry was crowned with remarkable success. 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 Kircher, 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 1 iron, Singularites Historiques et Literaires, tom. ii. p. 500.

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, Augustin laboured to extend the limits of the church, and to spread the light of the Gospel among the Anglo-Saxons; and, after his death, other monks were sent from Rome, to exert themselves in the same glorious cause. Their efforts were attended with the desired success: and the efficacy of their labours was manifested in the conversion of the six Anglo-Saxon kings, who had hitherto remained under the darkness of the ancient superstitions, to the Christian faith, which gained ground by degrees, and was, at length, embraced universally in Britain. We are not, however, to imagine, 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.

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

See Renaudot, p. 56, 68, &c. also Assemani Biblioth. of Christ; and that this circumstance has deceived De la cap. ix. p. 522; the learned Bayer, in the Preface to his Croze, Beausobre, and some other learned men, who have Museum Sinicum, assures us, that he had in his hands raised specious objections against the hypothesis that such proofs of the truth of what is here affirmed, as put maintains the early introduction of Christianity into this the matter beyond all doubt. See on this subject a great empire. A reader, properly informed, will pay litvery learned dissertation published by M. de Guignes in tle or no attention to the account given of this matter by the thirtieth vol. of the Memoires de Literature, tires des Voltaire in the first volume of his Essai sur l'Histoire Registres de l'Academie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Generale. A poet, who recounts facts, or denies them, Lettres, in which he proves that the Christians were set- without deigning to produce his authorities, must not extled in China so early as the seventh century. He re-pect to meet with the credit that is due to an historian. 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

*Bedæ Historia Ecclesiast. Gentis Anglor. lib. ii. cap, iii. xiv. lib. iii. cap. xxi.-Rapin de Thoyras, tom. i. Wilkins' Concilia Magna Britanniæ, tom. i. p. 222. See the Acta Sanctorum, tom. ii. Febr. p. 362,"