only fell into the sentiments of the Valentinians, and held, that Christ passed through the womb of the Virgin, as the pure stream of limpid water passes through a conduit, and that Mary did not preserve her virginity to the end of her days; all which assertions the Greeks rejected with the utmost antipathy and abhorrence. 3. "They refused to cele"brate the holy institution of the Lord's Sup "per;" for, as they imagined many precepts and injunctions of the Gospel to be of a merely figurative and parabolical nature, so they un VI. The Greek writers, instead of giving a complete view of the Paulician system, which was undoubtedly composed of a great variety of tenets, content themselves with mentioning six monstrous errors, which, in their estimation, rendered the Paulicians unworthy of en-derstood, by the bread and wine which Christ joying either the comforts of this world, or the is said to have administered to his disciples at happiness of the next. These errors are as his last supper, the divine discourses and exfollow: 1. "They denied that this inferior hortations of the Saviour, which are a spiritual "and visible world was the production of the food and nourishment to the soul, and fill it "Supreme Being, and they distinguished the with repose, satisfaction, and delight.* 4. "Creator of this world, and of human bodies," They loaded the cross of Christ with con"from the most high God, who dwells in the "tempt and reproach;" by which we are only "heavens." It was principally on account to understand, that they refused to follow the of this odious doctrine, which was, however, absurd and superstitious practice of the adopted by all the Gnostic sects, that the Greeks, who paid to the pretended wood of Paulicians were deemed Manichæans by the the cross a certain sort of religious homage. Greeks. But what their sentiments were con- As the Paulicians believed that Christ was cerning the creator of this world, and whether clothed with an ethereal, impassable, and cethey considered him as a being distinct from lestial body, they could by no means grant the evil principle, are matters that no writer that he was really nailed to the cross, or that has hitherto explained in a satisfactory man-he expired, in effect, upon that ignominious ner. We learn only from Photius, that, according to the Paulician doctrine, the evil principle was engendered by darkness and fire; whence it plainly follows that he was neither self-originated, nor eternal.* 2. “They "treated contemptuously the Virgin Mary;" that is to say, according to the manner of speaking usual among the Greeks, they refused to adore and worship her. They maintained, indeed, that Christ was the son of Mary, and was born of her (although they maintained, as appears from the express testimony of their adversaries, that the divine Saviour brought with him from heaven his human nature, and that Mary, after the birth of Christ, had other children by Joseph;) they tree: and hence naturally arose that treatment of the cross, of which the Greeks accused them. 5. "They rejected, after the example "of the greatest part of the Gnostics, the “books of the Old Testament, and looked upon the writers of that sacred history as in"spired by the Creator of this world, and not by the Supreme God." 6. " They entirely "excluded presbyters and lay-elders from the "administration of the church." By this, however, no more can be meant, than that they refused to call their doctors by the name of presbyters, a name which had its origin among the Jews, and was peculiar to that odious people, who persecuted Jesus Christ, and attempted, as the Paulicians speak, to put him to death.t * Photius, lib. ii. contra Manichæos, p. 147. It is evident, beyond all contradiction, that the Paulicians, in imitation of the oriental philosophers from whom the Gnostic and Manichæans derived their *The Greeks do not charge the Paulicians with origin, considered eternal matter as the seat and any error concerning baptism; it is, however, cersource of all evil; but they believed, at the same tain, that the accounts of that sacred institution, time, like many of the Gnostics, that this matter, which are given in Scripture, were allegorically exendued from all eternity with life and motion, had plained by this extravagant sect; and Photius, in his produced an active principle, which was the foun- first book against the Manichæans, expressly asserts tain of vice, misery, and disorder. This principle, that the Paulicians treated baptism as a mere alleaccording to them, is the author of all material sub-gorical ceremony, and by the baptismal water unstances, while God is the Creator and Father of spi- derstood the Gospel. rits. These tenets resemble, no doubt, the Mani- †These six famous errors of the Paulicians I have chæan doctrine; yet they differ from it in several taken from the Manichæan history of Petrus Sicupoints. The Paulicians seem to have emanated lus, with whom Photius and Cedrenus agree, alfrom one of the old Gnostic sects, and to have been though their accounts of these opinions be less pervery numerous and diversified; and, though perse-spicuous and distinct. The explanatory remarks cuted and oppressed from age to age in the most rigorous manner by many emperors, they could never be entirely suppressed, or extirpated. that I have added, are the result of my own reflec. tions upon the Paulician system, and the doctrine of the Greeks. THE TENTH CENTURY. PART I. THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. Concerning the Prosperous Events which hap II. The prince of that country, whom the Nestorians converted to the Christian faith, assumed, if we may give credit to the vulgar tradition, the name of John after his baptism, to which he added the surname of Presbyter, from a principle of modesty. Hence it was, as some learned men imagine, that the successors of this monarch retained these names until the time of Genghiz-Khan, who flourished in the fourteenth century, and were each of them called Prester John. But all this has a very fabulous air; at least it is advanced without any solid proof; it even appears evident, on the contrary, that the famous Prester John, who made so much noise in the world, did not begin to reign in that part of Asia before the conclusion of the eleventh century. It is, however, certain beyond all contradiction, that * Assemani Bibliotheca Oriental. Vatic. tom. iii part ii. p. 482.-Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 256. † Dr. Mosheim, and his translator, ought to have said, the thirteenth century. EDIT. See Assemani Biblioth. tom. iii. part ii. p. 282. the monarchs of the nation called Karit (which gul, and is by some denominated a tribe of the makes a large part of the empire of the MoTurks, and, by others, of the Tartars,) embraced Christianity in this century; and that a considerable part of Tartary, or Asiatic Scythia, lived under the spiritual jurisdiction of bishops who were sent among them by the Nestorian pontiff.* III. If we turn our eyes to the western world, we shall find the Gospel making its way with more or less rapidity among the most rude and uncivilized nations. The famous arch-pirate Rollo, son of a Norwegian count, being banished from his native land,† had, in the preceding century, put himself at the head of a resolute band of Normans, and seized one of the maratime provinces of France, whence he infested the neighbouring country with perpetual incursions and depredations. In 912, this valiant chief, with his whole army, embraced the Christian faith, on the following occasion. Charles the Simple, who wanted both resolution and power to drive this warlike and intrepid invader out of his dominions, was obliged to have recourse to negotiation. He accordingly offered to make over to Rollo a considerable part of his territories, on condition that the latter would consent to a peace, espouse his daughter Gisela,‡ and embrace Christianity. These terms were accepted by Rollo without the least hesitation; and his army, following the example of their leader, professed a religion of which they were totally ignorant.§ These Norman pirates, as appears from many authentic records, were absolutely without religion of any kind, and therefore were not restrained, by the power of prejudice, from embracing a religion which presented to them the most advantageous prospects. They knew no distinction between interest and duty, and they estimated truth and virtue only by the profits with which they were attended. It *The late learned Sigefred Bayer, in his Preface to the Museum Sinicum, p. 145, informed us of his design to give the world an accurate account of the Nestorian churches established in Tartary and China, drawn from some curious ancient records public. His work was to have been entitled Historia and monuments, that have not been as yet made Ecclesiarum Sinicarum, et Septentrionalis Asiæ; but death prevented the execution of this interesting plan, and also of several others, which this great thrown a new light upon the history of the Asiatic man had formed, and which would undoubtedly have Christians. † Holbergi Historia Danorum Navalis in Scriptis Societat. Scient. Hafniens. part iii. p. 357. Other writers more politely represent the of fer of Gisela as one of the methods that Charles employed to obtain a peace with Rollo. Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, tom. i. p. 296. Daniel, Hist. de France, tom. ii. p. 587. was from this Rollo, who received at his bap-|| tism the name of Robert, that the famous line of Norman dukes derived its origin; for the province of Bretagne, and a part of Neustria, which Charles the Simple conveyed to his sonin-law by a solemn grant, were from this time known by the name of Normandy, which they derived from their new possessors. we have, at least, no account of any compulsion or violence being employed in their conversion;* and this is the true date of the entire establishment of Christianity among that people. Wlodomir and his duchess were placed in the highest order of the Russian saints, and are still worshipped at Kiow (where they were interred) with the greatest devotion. The Latins, however, paid no such respect to the niemory of Wlodomir, whom they represented as absolutely unworthy of saintly honours.† IV. The Christian religion was introduced into Poland by the zealous efforts of female piety. Dambrowska, daughter of Boleslaus, duke of Bohemia, persuaded, by the force of VI. The Hungarians and Avari had receivrepeated exhortations, her husband Micislaus, ed some faint notions of Christianity under the duke of Poland, to abandon paganism; and, reign of Charlemagne, in consequence of the in 965, he embraced the Gospel. The account measures that had been taken by that zealous of this agreeable event was no sooner brought prince for the propagation of the Gospel.to Rome, than the pontiff, John XIII., sent into These notions, however, were soon and easily Poland Ægidius, bishop of Tusculum, attend- extinguished by various circumstances, which ed with a numerous train of ecclesiastics, in took their rise from the death of Charlemagne: order to second the pious efforts of the duke and it was not before the century of which we and duchess, who desired, with impatience, the now write that the Christian religion obtained conversion of their subjects. The exhorta- a fixed settlement among these warlike nations and endeavours of these devout mission- tions. Toward the middle of this century, aries, who were unacquainted with the lan- Bulosudes and Gyula or Gylas, two Turkish guage of the people they came to instruct, chiefs, whose governments lay upon the banks would have been entirely without effect, had of the Danube,§ made public profession of they not been accompanied with the edicts and Christianity, and were baptized at Constantipenal laws, the promises and threats of Mi- nople. The former apostatized soon after to cislaus, which dejected the courage, and con- the religion of his ancestors, while the latter quered the obstinacy of the reluctant Poles. not only persevered steadfastly in his new proWhen therefore the fear of punishment, and fession, but also showed the most zealous conthe hope of reward, had laid the foundations cern for the conversion of his subjects, who, of Christianity in Poland, two national arch-in consequence of his express order, were in bishops and seven bishops were consecrated to structed in the doctrines and precepts of the the ministry, whose zeal and labours were fol- Gospel by Hierotheus, a learned prelate, by lowed with such success, that the whole body whom he had been accompanied in his journey of the people abandoned, by degrees, their an- to Constantinople. Sarolta, the daughter of cient superstitions, and made public profession Gylas, was afterwards given in marriage to of the religion of Jesus. It was, indeed, no Geysa, the chief of the Hungarian nation, more than an external profession; for that in- whom she persuaded to embrace the divine reward change of affections and principles, which ligion in which she had been educated. The the Gospel requires, was far from being an ob- faith, however, of this new convert was feeble ject of attention in this barbarous age. and unsteady, and he retained a strong propensi. V. The Christian religion was established in ty to the superstition which he had been engag Russia by means similar to those that had oc-ed to forsake; but his apostasy was prevented casioned its propagation in Poland; for we must by the pious remonstrances of Adalbert, archnot lay any stress upon the proselytes that bishop of Prague, who went into Hungary towere made to Christianity among the Russians ward the conclusion of this century, and by in the preceding century, since those conver-whom also Stephen, the son of Geysa, was sions were neither permanent nor solid, and baptized with great pomp and solemnity. It since it appears evidently, that such of that na- was to this young prince that the Gospel was tion, as, under the reign of Basilius the Mace-principally indebted for its propagation and esdonian, had embraced the doctrine of the tablishment among the Hungarians, whose geGreek church, relapsed soon after into the su- neral conversion was the fruit of his zeal for perstition of their ancestors. Wlodomir, duke the cause of Christ; for he perfected what his of Russia and Moscovy, married, in 961, Anne, father and grandfather had only begun; fixed sister of Basilius, the second Grecian emperor bishops, with large revenues, in various places; of that name; and this zealous princess, by her erected magnificent temples for divine worship; repeated entreaties and her pious importunity, and, by the influence of instructions, threatenat length persuaded her reluctant spouse to re-ings, rewards, and punishments, brought his ceive the Christian faith, and he was accord-subjects, almost without exception, to abaningly baptized, in 987, assuming on that occa- don the wretched superstition of their idolasion the name of Basilius. The Russians spontaneously followed the example of their prince; * It was Neustria, and not Bretagne, that received the name of Normandy, from the Normans who chose Rollo for their chief. † Duglossi Historia Polonica, lib. ii. p. 91, lib. iii. p 95, 239.-Regenvolscii Historia Eccles. Slavon. lib. ii cap. i. p. 8.-Henr. Canisii Lectiones Antiquæ, tom. ii. part i. p. 41.-Solignac, Hist. de Pologne, tom. i. D. 71. * See Anton. Pagi Critica in Baron. tom. iv. ad annum 987, p. 55, et. ad an. 1015, p. 110.-Car. du Fresne, Famil. Byzant. p. 143. Ditmari, Merseb. Episcopi, Chronic, lib. vii. Caronic. p. 417, tom. i. Scriptor. Brunsvic. Leibnitii. Pauli Debrezeni Historia Eccles. Reformator. in Ungaria, part i. cap. iii. p. 19. The Hungarians and Transylvanians were, at this time, known to the Grecians by the name of Turks. trous ancestors. These vigorous proceedings, || they derived their origin from human art, and by which Stephen introduced the religion of not from a divine interposition.* As long Jesus among the Hungarians, procured him as Harald lived, he used every wise and prothe most distinguished honours of saintship in || succeeding ages.* bable method of confirming his subjects in the religion they had embraced. For this purpose VII. The Christian religion was in a very he established bishops in several parts of his do→ unsettled state among the Danes under the minions, enacted excellent laws, abrogated sureign of Gormon; and, notwithstanding the perstitious customs, and imposed severe reprotection it received from his queen, who pro-straints upon all vicious and immoral practices. fessed it publicly, it was obliged to struggle But, after all these pious efforts, and salutary with many difficulties, and to encounter much measures, which promised such fair prospects opposition. The face of things changed, in- to the rising church, his son Sueno, or Swein, deed, after the death of Gormon. His son apostatized from the truth, and, during a cerHarald, surnamed Blaatand, being defeated by tain time, involved the Christians in the deepOtho the Great, in 949, embraced the Gospel, est calamity and distress, and treated them and was baptized, together with his consort and with the greatest cruelty and injustice. This his son Sueno or Swein, by Adaldagus, arch- persecuting tyrant felt, however, in his turn, bishop of Hamburg, or, as others allege, by the heavy strokes of adversity, which producPoppon a pious ecclesiastic, who attended the ed a salutary change in his conduct, and hapemperor in this expedition. It is probable that pily brought him to a better mind; for, being Harald, educated by his mother Tyra, who driven from his kingdom, and obliged to seek was a Christian, was not extremely averse to his safety in a state of exile among the Scots, the religion of Jesus; it appears, however, cer- he embraced anew the religion he had abantain, that his conversion was less the effect of doned, and, on his restoration to his dominions, his own choice, than of the irresistible com- exerted the most ardent and exemplary zeal in mands of his victorious enemy; for Otho, per- the cause of Christianity, which he endeavoursuaded that the Danes would never desisted to promote to the utmost of his power.t from their hostile incursions and rapines, while they persevered in the religion of their ancestors, which was calculated to nourish a ferocity of temper, and to animate to military exploits, made it the principal condition of the treaty of peace, which he concluded with Harald, that he and his subjects should receive the Christian faith. On the conversion of this prince, Adaldagus and Poppon employed their ministerial labours among the Cimbrians and Danes, in order to engage them to imitate such an illustrious example; and their exhortations were crowned with remarkable success, to which the stupendous miracles performed by Poppon are said to have contributed in a particular manner. These miracles, indeed, were of such a kind, as manifestly shows that *The Greeks, Germans, Bohemians, and Poles, severally claim the honour of having been the founders of the Christian religion in Hungary; and their respective pretensions have introduced not a little obscurity into this matter. The Germans allege, that the Christian religion was brought into Hungary by Gisela, sister to their emperor Henry II., who, being given in marriage to Stephen, the king of that nation, persuaded that prince to embrace the Gospel. The Bohemians tell us, on the other hand, that it was by the ministry of Adalbert, archbishop of Prague, that Stephen was converted. The Poles affirm, that Geysa, having married a Christian princess of their nation, viz. Adelheid, sister to Micislaus, duke of Poland, was induced by her remonstrances and exhortations to make profession of Christianity. In consequence of a careful examination of all these pretensions we have followed the sentiments and decisions of the Greek writers, after having diligently compared them with the Hungarian historians; and we are encouraged in this by the authority of the learned Gabriel de Juxta Hornad, who, in his Initia Religionis Christianæ inter Hungaros Ecclesiæ orientali adserta, published in 1740, de-. cides this question in favour of the Greeks. All other accounts of the matter are extremely imperfect, and subject to many doubts and difficulties." † Adami Brem. Hist. lib. ii. cap. ii. iii. p. 16, cap. xv. p. 20, in Lindenbrogii Scriptoribus rerum Septentrional.-Alb. Kranzii Wandalia, lib. iv. cap. xx.Ludwigii Reliquiæ Manuscriptor. tom. ix. p. 10.Pontoppidani Annales Ecclesiæ Diplomatici, tom. i. p. 59. VIII. It was in this century, that the first dawn of the Gospel arose upon the Norwegians, as we learn from the most authentic records. The conversion of that people was attempted, in 933, by their monarch, Hagan Adalsteen, who had been educated among the English, and who employed certain ecclesiastics of that nation to instruct his subjects in the doctrines of Christianity. But his pious efforts were rendered fruitless by the brutal obstinacy, with which the Norwegians persevered in their ancient prejudices; and the assiduity and zeal with which his successor Harald Graufeldt pursued the same plan of reformation, were also without effect. The succeeding princes, far from being discouraged by these obstacles, persisted firmly in their worthy purpose; and Haco, among others, yielding to the intreaties of Harald, king of Denmark, to whom he was indebted for the Norwegian crown, embraced, himself, the Christian religion, and recommended it with the greatest fervour to his subjects, in an assembly of the people, holden in 945.§ This recommendation, notwithstanding the solemnity and zeal with which it was accompanied, made little impression upon the minds of this fierce and barbarous people; nor were they entirely gained over by the zealous endeavours of Olaus to convert them to Christianity, though the pious diligence of that prince, which procured him the honour of saintship, was not altogether without effect. But that which gave the finishing stroke to the conversion of the Norwe * Jo. Adolph. Cypræi Annales Episcopor. Slesvic. cap. xiii. p. 78.-Adam Bremens. lib. ii. cap. xxvi. p. 22, cap. xliv. p. 28.-Jo. Stephan. ad Saxonem Gram. mat. p. 207.-Molleri Introduct. ad Historiam Cher sones. Cimbric. part ii. cap. iii. sect. 14. † Saxon. Gramm. Histor. Dan. lib. x. p. 186.-Pon toppidan. de Gestis et Vestigiis Danorum extra Daniam, tom. ii. cap. i. sect. 1, 2. Eric. Pontoppidan. Annales Eccles. Danicæ di plomat. tom. i. p. 66. Torfæi Historia Norvegica, tom ii. p. 183, 214 gians was their subjection to Sueno, or Swein, || bishops in several places, and generously king of Sweden, who, having defeated their erected and endowed the bishoprics of Branmonarch Olaus Tryg-gueson, became master denburg, Havelberg, Meissen, Magdeburg, and of Norway, and obliged its inhabitants to aban- Naumburg; by which excellent establishments don the gods of their ancestors, and to embrace the church was furnished with eminent doctors universally the religion of Jesus.* Among the from various parts, whose instructions were the various doctors who were sent to instruct this occasion of raising up new laborers in the barbarous people, the most eminent, both in spiritual harvest, and of thus multiplying the merit and authority, was Guthebald, an En-ministers of Christ from time to time. It was glish priest. From Norway, Christianity spread its salutary light through the adjacent countries, and was preached, with success, in the Orkney islands, which were, at that time, subject to the Norwegian kings, and also in Iceland and Old Groenland; for it is evident, from many circumstances and records of undoubted authority, that the greatest part of the inhabitants of these countries received the Gospel in this century.‡ also through the munificence of the same prince, that many convents were erected for those who, in conformity with the false piety of the times, chose to finish their Christian course in the indolent sanctity of a solitary life; and it was by his express order that schools were established in almost every city for the education of the youth. All this may serve to show us the generosity and zeal of this illustrious emperor, whose merit would have IX. In Germany the pious exploits of Otho surpassed the highest encomiums, had his pruthe Great contributed, in a signal manner, to dence and moderation been equal to the ferpromote the interest of Christianity, and to fix vor of his piety and the uprightness of his init upon solid foundations throughout the em- tentions. But the superstition of his empress,* pire. This truly great prince, whose pious and the deplorable ignorance of the times, demagnanimity clothed him with a lustre infinite-luded this good prince into the notion, that he ly superior to that which he derived from his obliged the Deity in proportion as he loaded imperial dignity, was constantly employed in the clergy with riches and honors, and that extirpating the remains of the ancient super-nothing was more proper to draw down upon stitions, and in supporting and confirming the him the divine protection, than the exercise of infant church, which in several provinces had a boundless liberality to his ministers. In connot yet attained any considerable degree of sequence of this idle and extravagant fancy, consistence and vigor. That there might be Otho opened the sources of his opulence, rulers and pastors to govern the church, and to which flowed into the church like an overcontribute both by their doctrine and example grown torrent, so that the bishops, monks, and to the reformation and improvement of an un- the religious fraternities in general, wallowed polished and illiterate people, he established in wealth and abundance. But succeeding ages perceived the unhappy effects of this excessive and ill-judged munificence, when the sacred orders employed this opulence, which they had acquired without either merit or labor, in grati Dr. Mosheim attributes here to Swein the honor which is due to his predecessor Olaus Tryggueson; if it can be deemed an honour to have promoted a rational and divine religion by compulsion and violence, by fire and sword. Olaus, who had ab-fying their passions, in waging war against all jured Paganism in England during his youth, in con- who opposed their ambitious pretensions, and sequence of a warm and pathetic discourse which he in purchasing the various pleasures of a luxuhad heard from a British priest, returned to Norway rious and effeminate life. with a firm resolution to propagate Christianity throughout his dominions. For this purpose he traveled from one province to another, attended by a chosen band of soldiers, and, sword in hand, performed the functions of missionary and apostle. His ministry, thus enforced, was followed with the desired success throughout all the provinces, except that of Drontheim, which rose in rebellion against him, and attacked Christianity with the same kind of arguments that Olaus employed in establishing it. This opposition occasioned several bloody battles, which ended, however, in the defeat of the region had received his birth, had exercised his bels, and of the god Thor, their tutelar deity, whose ministry, and made expiation for the sins of statue Olaus dragged from its place, and burned pub-mortals, should be abandoned to the enemies of licly in the sight of his worshippers. This event dejected the courage of the inhabitants of Drontheim who submitted to the religion and laws of their conqueror. And thus, before the reign of Sueno, at least before the defeat of Olaus by that prince, Norway was Christian. See the History of Denmark, † Chron. Danicum a Ludewigio editum in Reliquiis Manuscriptorum, tom. ix. p. 11, 16, 17. published in French by M. Mallet, vol. i. p. 52, 53. X. It was no doubtful mark of the progress and strength of the Christian cause, that the European kings and princes began so early as this century to form the project of a holy war against the Mohammedans, who were masters of Palestine. They considered it as an intolerable reproach upon Christians, that the very land in which the divine author of their reli the Christian name. They also looked upon it as highly just, and suitable to the majesty of and injuries, the persecution and reproach, the Christian religion, to avenge the calamities which its professors had suffered under the Mohammedan yoke. The bloody signal was On the subject of the conversion of the inhabi- accordingly given toward the conclusion of this tants of the Orkneys, see Torfæi Historia Rerum century, by Sylvester II. in the first year of Orcadens, lib. i. p. 22, and, for an account of the Ice-his pontificate; and this signal was an epistle, landers, the reader may consult Arngrim Jonas' Cry-written in the name of the church of Jerusamogæa, lib. i. and Arius' Multis. in Schedis Islandiæ; lem, to the church universal throughout the world,† in which the European powers were as also Torfæus, Histor. Norveg. tom. ii. p. 378, 379, * See the life of the empress, whose name was Adelaide, in the Lectiones Antiquæ of Henry Cani †This is the twenty-eighth Epistle in the first part |