of Rome. They made his cause their own, and represented him as a sort of god to the ignorant multitude, over whom they had gained a prodigious ascendency by the notion that generally prevailed of the sanctity of the monastic order. It is, at the same time, to be observed, that this humanity toward the monks proved a fruitful source of licentiousness and disorder, and occasioned the greatest part of the vices with which they were afterwards so justly charged. Such, at least, is the judgment of the best writers upon this subject.* Antiochus, a monk of Saba in Palestine, and a monk of a very superstitious complexion, composed a Pandect of the Holy Scriptures, i. e. a summary or system of the Christian doctrine, which is by no means worthy of high commendation. Sophronius, bishop of Jerusalem, was rendered illustrious, and attracted the veneration of succeeding ages, by the controversies he carried on against those who, at this time, were branded with the name of heretics, and particularly against the Monothelites, of whose doctrine he was the first opposer, and also the fomenter of the dispute which it occasioned.* There are yet extant several homilies, attributed to Andrew, bishop of Crete, which are destitute of true piety and eloquence, and which are, moreover, considered by some writers as entirely spurious. Gregory, surnamed Pisides, deacon of Constantinople, beside the History of Heraclius and the Avares, composed several poems, and other pieces of too little moment to deserve mention. Theodore, abbot of Raithu, published a book which is still extant, against those sects whe seemed to introduce corrupt innovations into the Christian religion, by their doctrine relating to the person of Christ. VI. Among the Latin writers, a certain number were distinguished from the rest by their superior abilities. Ildefonso, archbishop of Toledo, was in repute for his learning; the Spaniards, however, attribute to him without foundation certain treatises concerning the Vir gin Mary.† IV. In the mean time the monks were every where in high repute, and their cause was accompanied with the most surprising success, particularly among the Latins, through the protection and favour of the Roman pontiff, and their pharisaical affectation of uncommon piety and devotion. The heads of families, striving to surpass each other in their zeal for the propagation and advancement of monkery, dedicated their children to God, by shutting them up in convents, and devoting them to a solitary life, which they looked upon as the highest felicity; nor did they fail to send with these innocent victims a rich dowry. Abandoned profligates, who had passed their days in the most vicious pursuits, and whose guilty consciences filled them with terror and remorse, were comforted with the delusive hopes of obtaining pardon, and making atonement for their crimes, by leaving the greatest part of their fortune to some monastic society. Multitudes, impelled by the unnatural dictates of a gloomy superstition, deprived their children of fertile lands and rich patrimonies, in favour of the monks, by whose prayers they hoped to render the Deity propitious. Several ecclesiastics laid down rules for the direction of the monastic orders. Those among the Latins, who undertook this pious task, were Fructuosus, Isidore, Johannes Gerundinensis, and Columban.‡ductions. The rule of discipline, prescribed by St. Bene- Marculf, a Gallic monk, composed two dict, was not yet universally followed, so as to books of ecclesiastical forms, which are highly exclude all others. valuable, as they are extremely proper to give V. The writers of this age, who distinguish-us a just idea of the deplorable state of relied themselves by their genius or erudition, were very few in number. Among the Greeks, the first rank is due to Maximus, a monk, who disputed with great obstinacy and warmth against the Monothelites, composed some illustrations upon the Holy Scriptures, and was, upon the whole, a man of no mean capacity, though unhappy through the impatience and violence of his natural temper. We have yet extant two books of Epistles, written by Desiderius, bishop of Cahors, and published by the learned Canisius. Eligius, or Eloi, bishop of Limoges, left behind him several homilies, and some other pro gion and learning in this century.‡ Aldhelm, an English prelate, composed several poems concerning the Christian life, which exhibit but indifferent marks of genius and fancy.§ Julian Pomerius confuted the Jews, and acquired a name by several other productions, which are neither worthy of much applause nor of utter contempt. To all these we might Isychius, bishop of Jerusalem, explained se-add Cresconius, whose Abridgement of the veral books of Scripture;§ and left several hom- Canons is well known; Fredegarius the histoilies, and some productions of less importance.rian, and a few others. Dorotheus, abbot of Palestine, acquired a considerable name by his Ascetic Dissertations, in which he laid down a plan of monastic life and manners. 65. * See Launoii Examen Privilegii S. Germani, tom. iii.ble Gervais, Histoire de l'Abbe Suger, tom. i. p. 9-16. * See the Acta Sanctorum, tom. ii. Martii ad d. xi. p † See the Acta Sanctorum, Januar tom. ii. p. 535. Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. iii. p. 565. This prelate certainly deserved a more honouramention than is here made of him by Dr. Mosheim. His poetical talents were by no means the most distin guishing part of his character. He was profoundly vers ed in the Greek, Latin, and Saxon languages. He ap peared also with dignity in the paschal controversy, that so long divided the Saxon and British churches. See Cal lier's Ecclesiastical Hist. vol. i. CHAPTER III. studious to attain a virtuous simplicity of life, and manners, and employed their principal zeal Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church and diligence in the culture of true and genu during this Century. ine piety, while the latter placed the whole of religion in external rites and bodily exercises. The methods also of solving the difficulties, and dissipating the doubts, which often arose in inquisitive minds, were of a piece with the rest of the superstitious system that now prevailed. The two great and irresistible arguments against all doubts, were the authority of minicam memoriter tenet.-Redimite animas vestras de cinas ecclesiis offerte, luminaria sanctis locis, juxta quod poena, dum habetis in potestate remedia; oblationes et dehabetis, exhibete; ad ecclesiam quoque frequentius convenite, sanctorum patrocinia humiliter expetite; quod si obcis venientes dicetis, Da, Domine, quia dedimus." We servaveritis, securi in die judicii ante tribunal æterni judisee here a large and ample description of the character of a "good Christian," in which there is not the least mention of the love of God, resignation to his will, obedience to his laws, or of justice, benevolence, and charity toward men; and in which the whole of religion is made to consist in coming often to the church, bringing offerings to the altar, lighting candles in consecrated places, and the like vain services.[*] citation from the writings of St. Eloi holds a distinguishagainst the clergy of former ages; and this definition of ed place in every invective which has been published I. In this barbarous age, religion lay expiring under a motley and enormous heap of superstitious inventions, and had neither the courage nor the force to raise her head, or to display her native charms, to a darkened and deluded world. In the earlier periods of the church, the Christian worship was confined to the one Supreme God, and his Son Jesus Christ: but the Christians of this century multiplied the objects of their devotion, and paid homage to the remains of the true cross, to the images of the saints, and to bones, whose real owners were extremely dubious. The primitive Christians, in order to excite men to a course of piety and virtue, set before them that heavenly state, and those mansions of misery, which the Gospel has revealed as the different portions of the righteous and the wicked; while the Christians of this century talked of nothing [*]Some modern writers of the Romish persuasion have else but a certain fire which effaced the stains exclaimed against these strictures in terms of severe repreof vice, and purified souls from their corruption.hension; and Dr. Lingard, in particular, says, "This The former taught that Christ, by his sufferings and death, had made atonement for the sins of mortals; the latter seemed, by their su- a good Christian has been re-echoed a thousand times perstitious doctrine, to exclude, from the king-by the credulity of writers and their readers;" but it apdom of heaven, such as had not contributed, pears, upon due investigation, he adds, that the "bishop of Noyon has been foully calumniated;" for his definíby their offerings, to augment the riches of the tion of a good Christian is of the following tenor: "Non clergy or the church.t The former were only vobis sufficit, charissimi, quod Christianum nomen accepistis, si opera Christiana non facitis. Illi enim prodest, *It will not be amiss to quote here a remarkable pas-quod Christianus vocatur, qui semper Christi præcepta sage out of the Life of St. Eligius, or Eloi, bishop of mente retinet, et opere perficit; qui furtum, scilicet, non Noyon, which is to be found in M. d'Achery's Spicilegi facit; qui falsum testimonium non dicit; qui nec mentitur, um veter. Scriptor. tom. ii. p. 92. This passage, which nec pejerat; qui adulterium non committit; qui nullum is very proper to give us a just idea of the piety of this hominem odit, sed omnes sicut semetipsum diligit; qui age, is as follows: "Huic sanctissimo viro, inter cetera inimicis suis malum non reddit, sed magis pro ipsis orat; virtutum suarum miracula, id etiam a Domino concessum qui lites non concitat, sed discordes ad concordiam revoerat, ut sanctorum martyrum corpora, quæ per tot sæcucat." "It is not sufficient for your characters or your la abdita populis hactenus habebantur, eo investigante ac credit, my dearest friends, that you merely bear the name nimio ardore fidei indagante, patefacta proderentur." It of a Christian; you must perform the acts and duties of a appears by this passage, that St. Eloi was a zealous relic- Christian. He alone is worthy of the name, who retains hunter; and, if we may give credit to the writer of his in his mind the precepts of religion, and carries them inlife, he was very successful at this kind of game; for he to effect; who avoids, as a crime, the commission of theft; smelt and unkennelled the carcasses of St. Quintin, St. who shuns the guilt of perjury or falsehood; who does Plato, St. Crispin, St. Crispinian, St. Lucian, and many not commit adultery; who hates no one, but is ready to more. The bishops of this age, who were either anbi- serve even his enemies; and who is so far from promoting tiously desirous of popular applause, or intent upon accu-strife, that he is eager to prevent all disputes, and allay mulating riches, and filling their coffers with the oblations all animosities." These and other evidences of the Chris of a superstitious people, pretended to be endowed with tian character and temper, in the century to which Dr. a miraculous sagacity in discovering the bodies of saints Mosheim refers, are given by the catholic historian in the and martyrs.[*] words of Audoenus (St. Ouen,) bishop of Rouen, who wrote the life of St. Eloi; and we are bound to state, because we have ascertained the point, that he has quoted the original fairly and correctly, according to the best edition of the Spicilegium. (Paris, 1723, 3 vols. folio.) We are induced to mention this circumstance, because some protestant divines have been so eager to exculpate Dr. Mosheim, that they have accused Dr. Lingard of fol † St. Eloi expresses himself upon this matter in the following manner "Bonus Christianus est, qui ad ecclesiam frequentius venit, et oblationem, quæ in altari Deo offeratur, exhibet; qui de fructibus suis non gustat, nisi prius Deo aliquid offerat; qui, quoties sanctæ solemnitates adveniunt, ante dies plures castitatem etiam cum propria uxore custodit, ut secura conscientia Domini altare accedere possit; qui postremo symbolum vel orationem Do-lowing a spurious edition, in which various interpolations [*] That much imposition was practised m this respect, even the catholics must admit. The biographer of 'Eloi says, that "some relics were honoured with popular worship in places where they did not exist, while no one knew, to a certainty, in what spot they were to be found."|| To supply this deficiency of knowledge, it became expedient, in the opinion of the clerical zealots, to point out the places of interment; and thus relics were wantonly multiplied, many saints having two or three heads found for each person, and a great number of arms and legs. This reminds us of the remark of a lady, who, having seen at a museum a relic which was said to be Cromwell's scull, asked the keeper of another repository, whether he could produce a scull of the same great personage. "No, Madam," he replied; "we have nothing of the kind."--"That seems very odd," said the lady; "I saw one at Oxford, and I should have thought that you would have had another."-Edit. might have been made by the Romanists to support the credit of the early church. We are aware that papists seem to have a fellow-feeling with their religious ancestors, and are frequently hurried by their zeal into misrepresentation, and sometimes into gross deviations from truth; but it is certainly illiberal to suspect them without cause, or to condemn them without inquiry. In the present case, we cannot conscientiously decide in favour of Dr. Mosheim. His general impartiality we readily admit; but he did not, on this occasion, strictly attend to that duty. In the very page from which he extracted the unfavourable passage, he must, we think, have seen (for he was usually keen in his researches) the detail of religious and moral duties quoted by Dr. Lingard, and he ought to have given one as well as the other, Some blame is also imputable to the translator, for not making due inquiry into the validity of Dr. Mosheim's charge against the churchmen of the seventh century.— Editor the church and the working of miracles, and the production of these prodigies required no extraordinary degree of dexterity in an age of such gross and universal ignorance. churches, were not contrived till after this period.* The dry and insipid body of divinity composed by Taio, or Tago, bishop of Saragossa, under the title of Five Books of Sentences, and compiled from the writings of Gregory and Augustin, is scarcely worthy of mention, though, in this century, it was considered as an admirable and immortal work.† gy, and the Manifestation of the Son in the Flesh, and also upon the Two Natures in Christ; and Theodore Raithu composed a treatise concerning Christ's Incarnation. But a small ac gion at this period, will enable us to form a just, though disadvantageous idea of the merit of these performances, and also of their authors. II. Few, either of the Greeks or Latins, applied themselves to the interpretation of the Scriptures during this century. There are yet extant some commentaries of Isychius, bishop of Jerusalem, upon certain books of the Old Several particular branches of doctrine were Testament, and upon the Epistle to the He- treated by the theological writers of this age: brews. Maximus published a solution of sixty-thus Maximus wrote of the nature of Theolofive questions relating to the Scriptures, and other productions of the same nature. Julian Pomerius attempted, but without success, to reconcile the seeming contradictions that are to be found in the sacred writings, and to ex-quaintance with the state of learning and reliplain the prophecy of Nahum. All these writers were manifestly inferior to the meanest expositors of modern times. The Grecian doctors, particularly those who pretended to be initiated in the most mysterious depths of theology, were continually hunting after fantastic allegories, as is evident from the Questions of Maximus already mentioned. The Latins, on the contrary, were so diffident of their abilities, that they did not dare to enter these alle-(author of the Ascetic Dissertations,) Maxigorical labyrinths, but contented themselves with what flowers they could pluck out of the rich collections of Gregory and Augustin. Of this we see a manifest example in Paterius' Exposition of the Old and New Testament, which is entirely compiled from the writings of Gregory the Great.* Among the interpreters of this century, we must not forget Thomas, bishop of Heraclea, who gave a second Syriac version of the New Testament.† IV. The moral writers of this century, and their miserable productions, show too plainly to what a wretched state that noble and important science was now reduced. Among these moralists, the first rank is due to Dorotheus mus, Aldhelm, Hesychius, Thalassius, and some others: yet, even in their productions, what grovelling notions do we find! what rubbish, what a heap of superstitious fancies! and how many marks of extravagance, perplexity, and doubt! Besides, the laity had little reason to complain of the severity of their moral directors, whose custom it was to reduce all the obligations of Christianity to the practice of a small number of virtues, as appears from AldIII. While philosophy and theology had helm's Treatise concerning the eight principal scarcely any remains of life, any marks of ex- Virtues. Nor was the neglect of these duties istence among the Latins, the Greeks were attended with such penalties as were proper to wholly occupied with fruitless controversies restrain offenders. The false notions also, about particular branches of religion, and did which prevailed in this age, tended much to not think of reducing all the doctrines of Chris-diminish a just sense of the nature and obligatianity into one regular and rational system. tion of virtue; for the solitude of the monastic It is true, Antiochus, a monk of Palestine, com- life, though accompanied with no marks of posed a short summary of the Christian doc-solid and genuine piety, was deemed sufficient trine, which he entitled, the Pandect of the to atone for all sorts of crimes, and was thereHoly Scriptures. It is, however, easy to perceive what sort of an author he was, how void of dignity and true judgment, from many circumstances, and particularly from that rueful poem which is subjoined to his work; in which he deplores, in lamentable strains, the loss of that precious fragment of the true cross, which || is said to have been carried away, by the Persians, among other spoils. The most elegant and judicious summary of theology that appeared among the Latins in this century, was the treatise of Ildefonso, de Cognitione Baptismi, which was saved by Baluze from the ruins of time; a work, indeed, which is not extremely necessary, since the ignoble frauds of superstition have been so fully brought to light, though it contains remarkable proofs, that of the corrupt inventions and pracmany tices, which disfigure Christianity in the popish This useless production has been usually published with the works of Gregory the Great; in consequence of which, the Benedictine monks have inserted it in their splendid edition of the works of that pontiff, tom. iv. part 11. Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican. tom. ii. p. 93, 94. fore honoured among the Latins with the title of the second baptism; which circumstance alone may serve to show us the miserable state of Christianity at this time. The greatest part of the Grecian and Oriental monks laboured to arrive at a state of perfection by mere contemplation, and studiously endeavoured to form their tempers and characters after the model of Dionysius, the chief of the Mystics. V. Theodore of Tarsus, a Grecian monk, restored among the Latins the discipline of penance, as it is commonly termed, which had been for a long time almost totally neglected, and enforced it by a body of severe laws bor * See Baluzii Miscellanea, tom. vi. p. 1. From the work of Ildefonso it appears evident, that the monstrous doctrine of Transubstantiation was absolutely unknown in the hands of all Christians, and were perused by them to the Latins in this century, and that the Scriptures were without the least molestation or restraint. Ildefonso, it is true, is zealous for banishing reason and philosophy from religious matters; he, however, establishes the Scriptures, and the writings of the ancient doctors, as the supreme tribunals before which all theological opinions are to be tried, p. 14, 22. + See Mabillon's Analecta veteris Evi, tom. ii. p. 68. In Britain, warm controversies concerning baptism and the tonsure, and particularly the famous dispute concerning the time of celebrat the ancient Britons, and the new converts to Christianity, which Augustin had made among the Anglo-Saxons.* The fundamental doc trines of Christianity were not at all affected by these controversies, which, on that account, were more innocent, and less important than they would have otherwise been. Besides, they were entirely terminated in the eighth century, in favour of the Anglo-Saxons, by the Benedictine monks.† HAPTER IV. Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the prelate, being raised beyond his expectation to the see of Canterbury, in 668, formed and executed several pious and laudable projects; and,||ing the Easter festival, were carried on between among other things, reduced to a regular science that branch of ecclesiastical law, which is known by the name of penitential discipline. He published a Penitential, which was entirely new to the Latin world, by which the clergy were taught to distinguish sins into various classes, according as they were more or less heinous, private or public; to judge of them, and determine the degrees of their guilt by their nature and consequences, by the intention of the offender, the time and place in which they were committed, and the circumstances with which they were attended. This new Penitential contained also the methods of pro- | ceeding with respect to offenders; pointed out the penalties that were suitable to the various classes of transgressions; prescribed the forms of consolation, exhortation, and absolution; and described, in an ample and accurate manner, the duties and obligations of those who were to receive the confessions of the penitent.* This new discipline, though of Grecian origin, was eagerly adopted by the Latin churches; and, in a short space of time, passed from Britain into all the western provinces, where the book of Theodore became the model of all other penitentials, and was multiplied in a vast number of copies. The duration of this discipline was transitory, for, in the eighth century, it began to decline, and was, at length, entirely supplanted by what was called the new canon of indulgences. I. In the council of Constantinople, which was called Quinisextum, the Greeks enacted several laws concerning the ceremonies that were to be observed in divine worship, which rendered their ritual, in some respects, different from that of the Romans. These laws were publicly received by all the churches, which were established in the dominions of the Grecian emperors; and also by those which were joined with them in communion and doctrine, though under the civil jurisdiction of barbarian princes. Nor was this all: for every Roman pontiff added something new to the ancient rites and institutions, as if each supposed it to be an essential mark of zeal for religion, and of a pious discharge of the ministerial functions, to divert the multitude with new VI. The doctors who opposed the various shews and new spectacles of devout mummesects are scarcely worthy of mention, and would ry. These superstitious inventions were, in still less deserve an attentive perusal, did not the time of Charlemagne, propagated from their writings contribute to illustrate the histo-Rome among the other Latin churches, whose ry of the times in which they lived. Nicias subjection to the Roman ritual was necessary composed two books against the Gentiles; and to satisfy the ambitious demands of the lordly Photius informs us, that a certain writer, whose pontiff. name is unknown, embarked in the same controversy, and supported the good cause by a prodigious number of arguments drawn from ancient records and monuments. Julian Pomerius exerted his polemic talent against the Jews. The views of Timotheus were yet more extensive; for he gave an ample description and a laboured confutation of all the various heresies that divided the church, in his book concerning the reception of Heretics. As to the dissensions of the catholic Christians among themselves, they produced, at this time, few or no events worthy of mention.We shall, therefore, only observe, that in this century were sown the seeds of those fatal discords, which rent asunder the bonds of Christian communion between the Greek and Latin churches: indeed, these seeds had already taken root in the minds of the Greeks, to whom the Roman power became insupportable, and the pretensions of the sovereign pontiff odious. *The Penitential of Theodore is yet extant, though maimed and imperfect, in an edition published at Paris in 1679, by Petit, and enriched with learned dissertations and notes of the editor. We have also the cxx Capitula Ecclesiastica Theodori, published in the Spicilegium of M. d'Achery, and in the Concilia Harduini." † Biblioth. cod. clxx. p. 379. II. It will not be improper to select here a few, out of the many instances we could produce of the multiplication of religious rites in this century. The number of festivals under which the church already groaned, was now augmented; a new festival was instituted in honour of the true cross on which Christ suffered, and another in commemoration of the Saviour's ascension into heaven. Boniface V. Hibernicar. p. 23.-Bedæ Historia Ecclesiast. gentis An- Mabillon, Præf. ad Sac. iii. Benedictinum, p. 1. This council was called Quinisextum, from its being considered as a supplement to the fifth and sixth councils of Constantinople, in which nothing had been decreed concerning the morals of Christians, or religious ceremonies. enacted that infamous law, by which the III. The condition, both of the Nestorians churches became places of refuge to all who and Monophysites, was much more flourishing fled thither for protection; a law which procur- under the Saracens, who had now become lords ed a sort of impunity to the most enormous of the east, than it had been hitherto under crimes, and gave indulgence to the licentious- the Christian emperors, or even the Persian ness of the most abandoned profligates. Ho- monarchs. These two sects met with a distinnorius employed all his diligence and zeal in guished protection from their new masters, embellishing churches, and other consecrated while the Greeks suffered under the same places, with the most pompous and magnifi- sceptre all the rigours of persecution and bancent ornaments; for, as neither Christ nor his ishment. Jesuiabas, the sovereign pontiff of apostles had left any injunctions of this nature the Nestorians, concluded a treaty, first with to their followers, their pretended vicar thought || Mohammed, and afterwards with Omar, by it but just to supply this defect by the most which he obtained many signal advantages for splendid display of his ostentatious beneficence. his sect.* There is yet extant a testamentary We shall pass in silence the richness and va- diploma of the pseudo-prophet, in which he riety of the sacerdotal garments that were now promises and 'bequeaths to the Christians, in used at the celebration of the eucharist, and in his dominions, the quiet and undisturbed en the performance of divine worship, as this joyment of their religion, together with their would lead us into a tedious detail of minute temporal advantages and possessions. Some and unimportant matters. learned men have, indeed, called in question the authenticity of this deed; it is, however, certain, that the Mohammedans unanimously the successors of Mohammed in Persia emacknowledge it to be genuine. Accordingly ployed the Nestorians in the most important affairs, both of the cabinet and of the provinces, and suffered the patriarch of that sect alone to reside in the kingdom of Bagdad. The Monophysites enjoyed in Syria and Egypt an equal degree of favour and protection.Amrou, having made himself master of Alexandria, in 644, fixed Benjamin, the pontiff of * Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican. tom. iii. part ii CHAPTER V. Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that trou bled the Church during this Century. I. THE Greeks were engaged, during this century, in the most bitter and virulent controversy with the Paulicians of Armenia, and the adjacent countries, whom they considered as a branch of the Manichean sect. This dispute was carried to the greatest height under the reigns of Constans, Constantine Pogonatus,|| and Justinian II.; and the Greeks were not only armed with arguments, but were also aided by the force of military legions, and the terror of penal laws. A certain person, whose name was Constantine, revived, under the reign of Constans, the drooping faction of the Paulicians, now ready to expire; and propagated with great success its pestilential* doctrines. But this is not the place to enlarge upon the tenets and history of this sect, whose origin is attributed to Paul and John, two brothers, who revived and modified the doctrine of Manes. As it was in the ninth century that the Paulicians flourished most, and acquired strength sufficient to support the rigours of an open and cruel war with the Greeks, we shall reserve a more particular account of them for our history of that period. II. In Italy, the Lombards preferred the opinions of the Arians to the doctrine which was established by the council of Nice. In Gaul and in England, the Pelagian and SemiPelagian controversies continued to excite the warmest animosities and dissensions. In the eastern provinces, the ancient sects, which had been weakened and oppressed by the imperial laws, but not extirpated or destroyed, began in many places to raise their heads, to recover their vigour, and gain proselytes. The terror of penal laws had obliged them, for some time, to seek safety in obscurity, and therefore to conceal their opinions from the public eye; but, as soon as they saw the fury or the power of their adversaries diminish, their hopes returned, and their courage was renewed. * Photius, lib. i. contra Manich. p. 61.-Petri Siculi Historia Manich. p. 41.-Georg. Cedrenus, Compend. Hist. p. 94. This famous Testament was brought from the east in the seventeenth century, by Pacificus Scaliger, a Capuat Paris, by Gabriel Sionita, in 1630; afterwards in Latin chin monk, and was published first in Arabic and Latin by the learned Fabricius, in 1638, and also by Hinckelman, in 1690. See Henr. Hottinger. Hist. Orient. lib. ii. cap. and Renaudot, Histor. Patriarchar. Alexandr. p. 168.— xx. p. 237.-Assemani Biblioth. tom. iii. part ii. p. 95; They who, in conformity with the opinion of Grotius, reject this testament, suppose it to have been forged by the Syrian and Arabian monks, with a view to soften the render their despotic masters less severe. Mohammedan yoke under which they groaned, and to Nor is this representation of the matter at all incredible; for it is certain, that the monks of mount Sinai formerly shewed an edict attributed to Mohammed, of the same nature with the one now under consideration, which they pretend was drawn up by him while he was yet in a private station. This edict was extremely advantageous to them, and was, undoubtedly, an artful piece of forgery. The their ignorance and stupidity, believed it to be a genuine fraud was plain; but the Moslems, in consequence of production of their chief, and continue still in the same opinion. There is an account of this fraud given by Cantemir, in his Histoire de l'Empire Ottoman, tom. ií. others draw in favour of the testament in question, from p. 269. The argument therefore which Renaudot and the acknowledgement which the Mohammedans make of its authenticity, is of little or no weight, since those infithings of this nature, by their gross and unparalleled igdels of all others are the most liable to be deceived in norance. On the other hand, several of the arguments used by those who deny its authenticity, are equally undifference between the style of this deed and that of the satisfactory; that, particularly, which is drawn from the Koran, proves absolutely nothing at all, since it is not essential to the genuineness of this testament to suppose it penned by Mohammed himself, because the impostor whether it be genuine or spurious, it is certain that its might have employed a secretary to compose it. But, contents were true, since many learned men have fully proved, that the pseudo-prophet, at his first setting out, prohibited, in the strongest manner, the commission of all sorts of injuries against the Christians, and especially the Nestorians. Asseman, p. 97.-Renaud. Histor. Patriarch. Alex andr. p. 163, 169. |