without hesitation, unworthy of the name and XII. Constantine, to whom the furious tribe privileges of a Christian, and thus excluded of the image-worshippers had given by way of him from the communion of the church; and derision the name of Copronymus,* succeeded no sooner was this formidable sentence made || his father Leo in the empire, in 741, and, anipublic, than the Romans, and other Italian mated with an equal zeal and ardour against communities, that were subject to the Grecian the new idolatry, employed all his influence empire, violated their allegiance, and, rising for the abolition of the worship of images, in in arms, either massacred or banished all the opposition to the vigorous efforts of the Ro emperor's deputies and officers. Leo, exaspe- man pontiffs and the superstitious monks. His rated by these insolent proceedings, resolved manner of proceeding was attended with to chastise the Italian rebels, and to make the greater marks of equity and moderation, than haughty pontiff feel in a particular manner the had appeared in the measures pursued by Leo: effects of his resentment; but he failed in the for, knowing the respect which the Greeks had attempt. Doubly irritated by this disappoint- for the decisions of general councils, whose anent, he vented his fury against images, and authority they considered as supreme and untheir worshippers, in 730, in a much more ter- limited in religious matters, he assembled at rible manner than he had hitherto done; for, Constantinople, in 754, a council composed of in a council assembled at Constantinople, he the eastern bishops, in order to have this imdegraded from his office Germanus, the bishop portant question examined with the utmost of that imperial city, who was a patron of im- care, and decided with wisdom, seconded by a ages, put Anastasius in his place, ordered all just and lawful authority. This assembly, the images to be publicly burned, and inflicted which the Greeks regard as the seventh œcua variety of severe punishments upon such as menical council, gave judgment, as was the were attached to that idolatrous worship. These custom of those times, in favour of the opinrigorous measures divided the Christian church ion embraced by the emperor, and solemnly into two violent factions, whose contests were condemned the worship and also the use of carried on with an ungoverned rage, and pro- images. But this decision was not sufficient duced nothing but mutual invectives, crimes, to vanquish the blind obstinacy of superstition: and assassinations. Of these factions, one many adhered still to their idolatrous worship; adopted the adoration and worship of images, and none made a more turbulent resistance to and were on that account called Iconoduli or the wise decree of this council than the monks, Iconolatræ; while the other maintained that who still continued to excite commotions in such worship was unlawful, and that nothing the state, and to blow the flames of sedition was more worthy of the zeal of Christians, and rebellion among the people. Their mathan to demolish and destroy the statues and lignity was, however, chastised by Constanpictures that were the occasions and objects of tine, who, filled with a just indignation at this gross idolatry; and hence they were dis- their seditious practices, punished several of tinguished by the titles of Iconomachi and them in an exemplary manner, and by new Iconoclastæ. The furious zeal which Gregory laws set bounds to the violence of monastic II. had shewn in defending the odious super-rage. Leo IV., who, after the death of Constition of image-worship, was not only imita-stantine, was declared emperor, in 775, adoptted, but even surpassed by his successor, who ed the sentiments of his father and grandfa was the third pontiff of that name; and though, ther, and pursued the measures which they at this distance of time, we are not acquainted had concerted for the extirpation of idolatry with all the criminal circumstances that at- out of the Christian church; for, having pertended the intemperate zeal of these insolent ceived that the worshippers of images could prelates, we know with certainty that it was not be engaged by mild and gentle proceedtheir extravagant attachment to image-wor-ings to abandon this superstitious practice, he ship that chiefly occasioned the separation of had recourse to the coercive influence of penal the Italian provinces from the Grecian empire.* | laws. XIII. A cup of poison, administered by the *The Greek writers tell us, that both the Gregories impious counsel of a perfidious wife, deprived carried their insolence so far as to excommunicate Leo Leo IV. of his life, in 780, and rendered the and his son Constantine, to dissolve the obligation of the idolatrous cause of images triumphant. The oath of allegiance, which the people of Italy had taken profligate Irene, after having thus dismissed to these princes, and to prohibit their paying tribute to them, or showing them any marks of submission and obe- her husband from the world, held the reins of dience. These facts are also acknowledged by many of empire during the minority of her son Conthe partisans of the Roman pontiffs, such as Baronius, Sigonius, and their numerous followers. On the other them as having given several marks of their submission hand, some learned writers, particularly among the and obedience to the imperial authority. Such are the French, alleviate considerably the crime of the Gregories, contrary accounts of the Greek and Latin writers; and and positively deny that they either excommunicated the the most prudent use we can make of them is, to suspend emperors above-mentioned, or called off the people from our judgment with respect to a matter, which the obscutheir duty and allegiance. See Launoius, Epist. lib. vii.rity that covers the history of this period renders it imEp. vii. p. 456. tom. v. op. par. ii.-Nat. Alexander, Se-possible to clear up. All that we can know with certainty lect. Histor. Ecclesiast. Capit. Sæc. viii. dissert. i. P 456. is, that the zeal of the two pontiffs above-mentioned for De Marca, Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii, lib. iii. cap. the worship of images, furnished to the people of Italy xi.-Bossuet, Defens. Declarationis Cleri Gallic. de Po- the occasion of falling from their allegiance to the Gretestate Eccles. par. i. lib. vi. cap. xii. p. 197.-Giannone, cian emperors. Historia di Napoli, vol. i. All these found their opinions, concerning the conduct of the Gregories, chiefly upon the authority of the Latin writers, such as Anastasius, Paul the Deacon, and others, who seem to have known nothing of that audacious insolence, with which these pontiffs are said to have opposed the emperors, and even represent | This nick-name was given to Constantine, from his having defiled the sacred font at his baptism. The authority of this council is not acknowledg ed by the Roman catholics, who also disregard the obli gation of the second commandment, which they have pru dently struck out of the decalogue. stantine; and, to establish her authority on assembled, at Frankfort on the Maine, a counmore solid foundations, entered into an alli-cil of three hundred bishops, in order to re-exance with Adrian, bishop of Rome, in 786,amine this important question; in which the and summoned a council at Nice in Bithynia, opinions contained in the four books were sowhich is known by the title of the second Ni- lemnly confirmed, and the worship of images cene council. In this assembly the imperial unanimously condemned.* Hence we may laws concerning the new idolatry were abro- conclude, that, in this century the Latins deemgated, the decrees of the council of Constanti-ed it neither impious, nor unlawful, to dissent nople reversed, the worship of images and of from the opinion of the Roman pontiff, and the cross restored, and severe punishments de- even to charge that prelate with error. nounced against such as maintained that God XV. While the controversy concerning imawas the only object of religious adoration. It ges was at its height, a new contest arose is impossible to imagine any thing more ridi-among the Latins and Greeks about the source culous and trifling than the arguments upon which the bishops, assembled in this council, founded their decrees.* The Romans, however, held sacred the authority of these decrees; and the Greeks considered in the light of parricides and traitors all such as refused to submit to them. The other enormities of the flagitious Irene, and her deserved fate, cannot, with propriety, be treated of here. XIV. In these violent contests, the greater part of the Latins, such as the Britons, Germans, and Gauls, seemed to steer a middle way between the opposite tenets of the contending parties. They were of opinion that images might be lawfully preserved, and even placed in the churches; but, at the same time, they looked upon all worship of them as highly injurious and offensive to the Supreme Being.† Such, particularly, were the sentiments of Charlemagne, who distinguished himself in this important controversy. By the advice of the French bishops, who were no friends to this second council of Nice, he ordered some learned and judicious divine to compose Four Books concerning Images, which he sent, in 790, to Adrian, the Roman pontiff, with a view of engaging him to withdraw his approbation of the decrees of that council. In this performance the reasons alleged by the Nicene bishops to justify the worship of images, are refuted with great accuracy and spirit. They were not, however, left without defence: Adrian, who was afraid of acknowledging even an emperor for his master, composed an answer to the four books mentioned above; but neither his arguments, nor his authority, were sufficient to support the superstition he endeavoured to maintain; for, in 794, Charlemagne *Mart. Chemnitius, Examen Concilii Tridentini, par. iv. lib. ii. cap. v. p. 52.-L'Enfant, Preservatif contre la Reunion avec le Siege de Rome, par. iii. lettre xvii. p. 446. The aversion the Britons had to the worship of images, may be seen in Spelman, Concil, Magnæ Britanniæ, Lom. i. p. 73. whence the Holy Ghost proceeded. The Latins affirmed, that this divine Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son: the Greeks, on the contrary, asserted, that it proceeded from the Father only. The origin of this controversy is covered with perplexity and doubt. It is, however, certain, that it was agitated in the council of Gentilli, near Paris, in 767, in presence of the emperor's legates; and from this we may conclude, with a high degree of probability, that it arose in Greece at that time when the contest about images was carried on with the greatest vehemence. In this controversy the Latins alleged, in favour of their opinions, the creed of Constantinople, which the Spaniards and French had successively corrupted (upon what occasion is not well known,) by adding the words filio-que to that part of it which contained the doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost. The Greeks, on the other hand, made loud complaints of this criminal attempt of the Latins to corrupt by a manifest interpolation a creed, which served as a rule of doctrine for the church universal, and declared this attempt impudent and sacrilegious. Thus, the dispute changed at length its object, and was transferred from the matter to the interpolated words above mentioned.‡ In the following century it was carried on with still greater vehemence, and added new fuel to the dissensions which already portended a See Le Cointe, Annales Eccles. Francorum, tom. v. 698. p. The books of Charlemagne concerning Images, which deserve an attentive perusal, are yet extant; and, when they were extremely scarce, were republished at Hanover, in 1731, by the celebrated Christopher Aug. Heuman, who enriched this edition with a learned preface. These books are adorned with the venerable name of Charlemagne; but it is easy to perceive that they are the productions of a scholastic divine, and not of an emperor. Several learned men have conjectured, that Charlemagne composed these books with the assistance of his preceptor Al-cerning images; for, when the Latins treated the Greeks cuin; see Heuman's Pref. p. 51; and Bunau's Historia Imperii German. tom. i, p. 490. This conjecture, though far from being contemptible, cannot be admitted without hesitation, since Alcuin was in England when these books were composed. We learn from the history of his life, that he went into England in 789, and did not thence return before 792. as heretics, on account of their opposition to image-worship, the Greeks in their turn charged the Latins also with heresy, on account of their maintaining that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son. The learned critic has, however, advanced this opinion without sufficient proof; and we must therefore consider it as no more than a probable conjecture. schism between the eastern and churches.* CHAPTER IV. Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the Church during this Century. western || in use at Rome, to be observed in all Christian churches. It was in conformity with his example, and in compliance with the repeated and that Charlemagne laboured to bring all the importunate solicitation of the pontiff Adrian, Latin churches to follow, as their model, the church of Rome, not only in the article now mentioned, but also in the whole form of their worship, in every circumstance of their religious service.* Several churches, however, among which those of Milan and Corbetta distinguished themselves eminently, absolutely rejected this proposal, and could neither be brought, by persuasion or by violence, to change their usual method of worship. CHAPTER V. Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that trou bled the Church during this Century. I. THE religion of this century consisted almost entirely in a motley round of external rites and ceremonies. We are not, therefore, to wonder that more zeal and diligence were en ployed in multiplying and regulating these ontward marks of a superstitious devotion, than in correcting the vices and follies of men, in enlightening their understandings, and forming their hearts. The administration of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, which was deemed the most solemn and important branch of divine worship, was now every where embellished, or rather deformed, with a variety of senseless fopperies, which destroyed the beautiful simplicity of that affecting and saluI. THE Arians, Manicheans, and Marciontary institution. We also find manifest traces, ites, though often depressed by the force of in this century, of that superstitious custom of penal laws and the power of the secular arm, celebrating what were called solitary masses, gathered strength in the east, amidst the tuthough it be difficult to decide whether they mults and divisions with which the Grecian were instituted by a public law, or introduced empire was perpetually agitated, and drew by the authority of private persons. Be that great numbers into the profession of their opinas it may, this single custom is sufficient to ions. The Monothelites, to whose cause the give us an idea of the superstition and dark- emperor Philippicus, and many others of the ness that sat brooding over the Christian first rank and dignity, were most zealous wellchurch in this ignorant age, and renders it un-wishers, regained their credit in various counnecessary to enter into a farther detail of the tries. The condition also both of the Nestori absurd rites with which a designing priesthood || ans and Monophysites was easy and agreeable continued to disfigure the religion of Jesus. under the dominion of the Arabians; their II. Charlemagne seemed disposed to stem this torrent of superstition, which gathered force from day to day; for, not to mention the zeal with which he opposed the worship of images, there are other circumstances that bear testimony to his intentions in this matter, such II. In the church which Boniface had newly as his preventing the multiplication of festi- erected in Germany, he himself tells us, that vals, by reducing them to a fixed and limited there were many perverse and erroneous repronumber, his prohibiting the ceremony of con- bates, who had no true notion of religion; and secrating the church bells by the rite of holy his friends and adherents confirm this assertion. aspersion, and his enactment of other ecclesi- But the testimony is undoubtedly partial, and astical laws, which redound to his honour. unworthy of credit, since it appears from the Several circumstances, however, concurred to most evident proofs, that the persons here acrender his designs abortive, and to blast the cused of errors and heresies were Irish and success of his worthy purposes; and none more French divines, who refused that blind subthan his excessive attachment to the Roman mission to the church of Rome, which Boni pontiffs, who were the patrons and protectors face was so zealous to propagate every where of those who exerted themselves in the cause Adalbert, a Gaul, and Clement, a native of of ceremonies. This vehement passion for the Ireland, were the persons whose opposition lordly pontiff was inherited by the great prince gave the most trouble to the ambitious legate. of whom we are now speaking, from his father The former procured himself to be consecrated Pepin, who had already commanded the man-bishop, without the consent of Boniface; exner of singing, and the kind of church-music *See Pithæi Hist. Controv. de Processione Spiritus S. at the end of his Cod. Canon. Eccles. Roman. p. 355. Le Quien, Oriens Christian. ton. in. p. 354.-Ger. J. Vossius, de Tribus Symbolis, Diss. iii. p. 65; and, above all, Jo. Georg. Walchius, Histor. Controv. de Processione Spiritus S. published at Jena in 1751. Solitary or private masses were such as were celebrated by the priest alone in behalf of souls detained in purgatory, as well as on some other particular occasions. These masses were prohibited by the laws of the church; but they were a rich source of profit to the clergy. They were condemned by the canons of a synod assembled at Mentz under Charlemagne, as criminal innovations, and as the fruits of avarice and sloth. See the Treatise concerning Images, attributed to Charlemagne, p. 245; as also George Calixtus, de Missis Solitari's, sect. 12. power and influence were considerable; nor were they destitute of means of weakening the Greeks, their irreconcileable adversaries, of spreading their doctrines, and extensively multiplying the number of their adherents. cited seditions and tumults among the eastern Franks; and appears, indeed, to have been both flagitious in his conduct, and erroneous in his opinions. Among other irregularities, he was the forgert of a letter to the human race, which was said to have been written by Jesus Christ, and to have been brought from heaven by the arch-angel Michael.§ As to Clement, * See the Treatise concerning Images, p. 52; and Eginhard, de Vita Caroli Magni, cap. 26. In Europe also Arianism prevailed greatly among the barbarous nations that embraced the Christian faith. 82. See the Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. iv. p. There is an edition of this letter published by the learned Baluze in the Capitularia Regum Francorum tom. ii. p. 1396. his character and sentiments were maliciously || part of the Latin doctors, looked upon this misrepresented, since it appears, by the best opinion as a renovation of the Nestorian hereand most authentic accounts, that he was sy, by its representing Christ as divided into much better acquainted with the true princi- two distinct persons. In consequence of this, ples and doctrines of Christianity than Boni- Felix was successively condemned by the counface himself; and hence he is considered by cils of Narbonne, Ratisbon, Frankfort on the many as a confessor and sufferer for the truth Maine, and Rome, and was finally obliged, by in this barbarous age.* Be that as it will, the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, to retract his erboth Adalbert and Clement were condemned, ror, and to change his opinion.* The change he at the instigation of Boniface, by the pontiff made was, however, rather nominal than real, Zachary, in a council assembled at Rome, in the common shift of temporising divines; for 748,† and were committed to prison, where, in he still retained his doctrine, and died in the all probability, they concluded their days. firm belief of it at Lyons, to which city he had been banished by Charlemagne. Elipand, on the contrary, lived secure in Spain under the dominion of the Saracens, far removed from the thunder of synods and councils, and out of the reach of that coercive power in religious matters, whose utmost efforts can go no farther than to make the erroneous, hypocrites or martyrs. Many are of opinion, that the disciples of Felix, who were called Adoptians, departed much less from the doctrine generally received among Christians, than is commonly imagined; and that what chiefly distinguished their tenets were the terms they used, and their manner of expression, rather than a real diversity of sentiments. But, as this sect and their chief thought proper to make use of singular and sometimes of contradictory expressions, this furnished such as accused them of Nestorianism, with plausible reasons to support their charge. III. Religious discord ran still higher in Spain, France, and Germany, toward the conclusion of this century; and the most unhappy tumults and commotions were occasioned by a question proposed to Felix bishop of Urgel, by Elipand, archbishop of Toledo, who desired to know in what sense Christ was the son of God. The answer given to this question, was, that Christ, considered in his divine nature, was truly and essentially the Son of God; but that, considered as a man, he was only so, nominally and by adoption. This doctrine was spread abroad by the two prelates; Elipand propagated it in the different provinces of Spain, and Felix throughout Septimania, while the pontiff Adrian, and the greatest *We find an enumeration of the erroneous opinions of Clement in the letters of Boniface, Epistol. cxxxv. p. 189. See also Usserii Sylloge Epistolarum Hibernicarum, p. 12. Nouveau Dictionnaire Histor. et Critique, tom. i. p. 133. The zealous Boniface was too ignorant to be a proper judge of heresy, as appears by his condemn. ing Vigilius for believing that there were antipodes. The great heresy of Clement seems to have been his preferring the decisions of Scripture to the decrees of councils and the opinions of the fathers, which he took the liberty to reject when they were not conformable to the word of God. This is the true date of the council assembled by Zachary for the condemnation of Adalbert and Clement, and not the year 745, as Fleury and Mabillon have pretended; in which error they are followed by Mr. Bower, in his History of the Popes. The truth is, that the letter of Boniface, in consequence of which this council was assembled, must have been written in 748, since he declares in that letter, that he had been near thirty years legate of the holy see, into which commission he entered,|| as all authors agree, about the year 719. * The council of Narbonne, which condemned Felix, was holden in 788, that of Ratisbon in 792, that of Frankfort in 794, that of Rome in 799. The authors, who have written of the sect of Felix, are mentioned by Fabricius, Biblioth. Lat. medii Evi, tom. ii. p. 482. Add to these Petrus de Marca, in his Marca Hispanica, lib. iii. cap. xii. p. 368.-Jo. de Ferreras, Historia de Espana, tom. ii.-Mabillon, Præf. ad Sæc. iv. Actor. SS. Ord. Benedicti, part ii. There are also very particular accounts given of Felix by Dom. Colonia, in his Histoire Literaire de la Ville de Lyon, tom. ii. and by the Benedictine monks in their Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. iv. Jo. G. Dorscheus, Collat. ad Concilium Francofurt, p. 101.-Werenfels, de Logomachiis Eruditorum, p. 459. Basnagius, Præf. ad Etherium in Canisii Lection. antiquis, tom. ii. part i. p. 284.-G. Calixtus, Singul. Diss. THE NINTH CENTURY. PART I. THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. Concerning the Prosperous Events which happened to the Church in this Century. course.* III. About the middle of this century the Mosians,† Bulgarians, and Gazarians, and after them the Bohemians and Moravians, were converted to Christianity by Methodius and Cyril, two Greek monks, whom the empress Theodora had sent to dispel the darkness of those idolatrous nations. The zeal of Charlemagne, and of his pious missionaries, had been formerly exerted in the same cause, and among the same people,§ but with so little success, that any faint notions which they had received of the Christian doctrine were entirely quently among the Danes, Cimbrians, and Swedes, in order to promote the cause of Christ, to form new churches, and to confirm and establish those which he had already inI. THE reign of Charlemagne had been sin- corporated; in all which arduous enterprises gularly auspicious to the Christian cause; the he passed his life in the most imminent danlife of that great prince was principally em-gers, until, in 865, he concluded his glorious ployed in the most zealous efforts to propagate and establish the religion of Jesus among the Huns, Saxons, Friselanders, and other unenlightened nations; but his piety was mixed with violence, his spiritual conquests were generally made by the force of arms, and this impure mixture tarnishes the lustre of his noblest exploits. His son Louis, undeservedly surnamed the Debonnaire, or the Meek, inherited the defects of his father without his virtues, and was his equal in violence and cruelty, but greatly his inferior in all worthy and valuable accomplishments. Under his reign a very favourable opportunity was offered of pro-effaced. The instructions of the Grecian docpagating the Gospel among the northern nations, and particularly among the inhabitants of Sweden and Denmark. A petty king of Jutland, named Harald Klack, being driven from his kingdom and country, in 826, by Regner Lodbrock, threw himself at the emperor's feet, and implored his succours against the usurper. Louis granted his request, and promised the exiled prince his protection and assistance, on condition, however, that he would embrace Christianity, and admit the ministers of that religion to preach in his dominions. Harald submitted to these condi-donian, who ascended the imperial throne of tions, was baptised with his brother at Mentz, in 826, and returned into his country attended by two eminent divines, Ansgar or Anschaire, and Authbert; the former a monk of Corbey in Westphalia, and the latter belonging to a monastery of the same name in France. These venerable missionaries preached the Gospel with remarkable success, during the course of two years, to the inhabitants of Cimbria and Jutland. tors had a much better, and also a more permanent effect; but, as they recommended to their new disciples the forms of worship, and the various rites and ceremonies used among the Greeks, this was the occasion of much religious animosity and contention in aftertimes, when the lordly pontiffs exerted all their vehemence, and employed all the means which they could devise, though with imperfect suc cess, for reducing these nations under the discipline and jurisdiction of the Latin church. IV. Under the reign of Basilius, the Mace the Greeks in 867, the Sclavonians, Arentani, and certain communities of Dalmatia, sent a solemn embassy to Constantinople to declare their resolution of submitting to the jurisdiction of the Grecian empire, and of embracing, at the same time, the Christian religion. This * The writers to whom we are indebted for accounts of this pious and illustrious prelate, the founder of the Cimbrian, Danish, and Swedish churches, are mentioned by Fabricius in his Biblioth. Latin. medii Ævi, tom. i. II. After the death of his learned and pious p. 292, as also in his Lux Evangelii Orbi Terrarum exocompanion Authbert, the zealous and indefati-riens, p. 425. Add to these the Benedictine monks, in gable Ansgar made a voyage into Sweden, in their Histoire Lit. de la France, tom. v. p. 277.-Acta 828, where his ministerial labours were also Sanctor. Mens. Februar. tom. i. p. 391.-Erici Pontoppidani Annales Eccles. Danica Diplomat. tom. i. p. 18.crowned with distinguished success. Return- Molleri Cimbria Literata, tom. iii. These writers give ing into Germany, in 831, he was loaded by us also circumstantial accounts of Ebbo, Withmar, RemLouis with ecclesiastical honours, being creat-bert, and others, who were either the fellow-labourers or ed archbishop of the new church at Hamburg, and also of the whole north, to which dignity, in 844, the superintendence of the church at Bremen was added. The profits attached to this high and honourable charge were very inconsiderable, while the perils and labours, inii, which it involved the pious prelate, were truly formidable. Accordingly he travelled fre successors of Ansgar. We have translated thus the term Mysi, which is an error in the original. Dr. Mosheim, like many others, has confounded the Mysians with the inhabitants of Moesia, by giving to the latter, who were Europeans, the title of the former, who dwelt in Asia. Jo. George Stredowsky, Sacra Moravia Historia, lib. L'Enfant, Histoire de la Guerre des Hussites, livr. i. |