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AN

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY;

BOOK THE THIRD,

CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

FROM

CHARLEMAGNE TO THE REFORMATION BY LUTHER

THE EIGHTH CENTURY.

PART I.

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the Prosperous Events which happen

ed to the Church in this Century.

I. WHILE the Mohammedans were infesting with their arms, and adding to their conquests, the most flourishing provinces of Asia, and obcuring, as far as their influence could extend, the lustre and glory of the rising church, the Nestorians of Chaldea were carrying the lamp of Christianity among those barbarous nations, called Scythians by the ancients, and by the moderns, Tartars, who, unsubjected to the Saracen yoke, had fixed their habitations within the limits of mount Imaus.* It is now well known, that Timotheus, the Nestorian pontiff, who had been raised to that dignity in 778, converted to the Christian faith, by the ministry of Subchal Jesu, whom he had consecrated bishop, first the Gelæ and Dailamites by whom a part of Hyrcania was inhabited; and afterwards, by the labours of other missionaries, the rest of the nations, who had formed settlements in Hyrcania, Bactria, Margiana, and Sogdia. It is also certain, that Christianity enjoyed, in these vast regions, notwithstanding occasional attacks from the Mohammedans, the

The southern regions of Scythia were divided oy the ancients (to whom the northern were unknown) into three parts, namely, Scythia within, and Scythia befond. Imaus, and Sarmatia. It is of the first of these three that Dr. Mosheim speaks, as enlightened at this time with the knowledge of the Gospel; and it comprehended Turkestan, the Mongol, Usbeck, Kalmuck, and Nogaian Tartary, which were peopled by the Bactrians, Sogdians, Gandari, Sacs, and Massagetes, not to mention the land of Siberia, Samoiedia, and Nova Zembla, which were

aninhabited in ancient times.

Thomas Margensis, Historia Monastica, lib. ii. in Asemani Biblioth. Orient. V tic. tom. iii.

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advantages of a firm and solid establishment for a long course of ages; while the bishops, by whose ministry it was propagated and supported, were all consecrated by the sole authority of the Nestorian pontiff.

II. If we turn our eyes toward Europe, we find many nations that were yet unenlightened with the knowledge of the Gospel. Almost all the Germans, (if we except the Bavarians, who had embraced Christianity under Theodoric, or Thierry, the son of Clovis, and the eastern Franks, with a few other provinces) lay buried in the grossest darkness of pagan superstition. Many attempts were made, by pious and holy men, to infuse the truth into the minds of these savage Germans; and various efforts were used for the same purpose by kings and princes, whose interest it was to propagate a religion that was so adapted to mitigate and tame the ferocity of those warlike nations; but neither the attempts of pious zeal, nor the efforts of policy, were attended with success.

This great work was, however, effected in this century, by the ministry of Winfred, a Benedictine monk, born in England of illustrious parents, and afterwards known by the name of Boniface. This famous ecclesiastic, attended by two companions of his pious labours, passed over into Friseland in 715, to preach the Gospel to the people of that country; but this first attempt was unsuccessful; and a war breaking out between Radbod, the king of that country, and Charles Martel, our zealous missionary returned to England. He resumed, however, his pious undertaking in 719; and being solemnly empowered by the Roman pontiff, Gregory II., to preach the Gospel, not only in Friseland, but all over Ger

many, he performed the functions of a Chris- || half of the truth; but often employed violence tian teacher among the Thuringians, Friselanders, and Hessians, with considerable success.*

III. This eminent missionary was, in 723,consecrated bishop by Gregory II., who changed the name of Winfred into that of Boniface: seconded also by the powerful protection, and encouraged by the liberality of Charles Martel, mayor of the palace to Chilperic, king of France, he resumed his ministerial labours among the Hessians and Thuringians, and finished with glory the task he had undertaken, in which he received considerable assistance from a number of pious and learned men, who repaired to him from England and France. As the Christian churches erected by Boniface were too numerous to be governed by one bishop, this prelate was advanced to the dignity of archbishop, in 738, by Gregory III., by whose authority, and the auspicious protection of Carloman and Pepin, the sons of Charles Martel, he founded the bishoprics of Wurtzburg, Buraburg, Erfort, and Eichstadt, to which he added, in 744, the famous monastery of Fulda. His last promotion (the last recompense of his assiduous labours in the propagation of the truth) was his advancement to the archiepiscopal see of Mentz, in 746, by Zachary, bishop of Rome, by whom he was, at the same time, created primate of Germany and Belgium. In his old age, he returned to Friseland, that he might finish his ministry in the same place where he had entered first upon its functions; but his piety was ill rewarded by that barbarous people, by whom he was murdered in 755, while fifty ecclesiastics, who accompanied him in his journey, shared the same unhappy fate.

and terror, and sometimes artifice and fraud, in order to multiply the number of Christians. His epistles, moreover, discover an imperious and arrogant temper, a cunning and insidious turn of mind, an excessive zeal for increasing the honours and pretensions of the sacerdotal order, and a profound ignorance of many things of which the knowledge was absolutely necessary in an apostle, and particularly of the true nature and genius of the Christian religion.

V. The famous prelate, of whom we have been now speaking, was not the only Christian minister who attempted to deliver the German nations from the miserable bondage of pagan superstition; several others signalised their zeal in the same laudable and pious undertak ing. Corbinian, a French Benedictine monk, after having laboured with great assiduity and fervour in planting the Gospel among the Bavarians, and in other countries, became bishop of Freysingen.* Firmin, a Gaul by birth, preached the Gospel under various kinds of suffering and opposition in Alsatia, Bavaria, and Helvetia, now Switzerland, and had inspection over a considerable number of monasteries.† Lebuin, an Englishman, laboured with the most ardent zeal and assiduity to engage the fierce and warlike Saxons, and also the Friselanders, Belge, and other nations, to receive the light of Christianity: but his ministry was attended with very little fruit. pass over in silence several apostles of less fame; nor is it necessary to mention Willibrod, and others of superior reputation, who persist ed now with great alacrity and constancy in the labours they had undertaken in the preceding century, in order to the propagation of divine truth.

We

IV. Boniface, on account of his ministerial labours and holy exploits, was distinguished VI. A war broke out at this time between by the honourable title of the Apostle of the Charlemagne and the Saxons, which conGermans; nor, if we consider impartially the tributed much to the propagation of Chriseminent services he rendered to Christianity, tianity, though not by the force of a rational will this title appear to have been undeservedly persuasion. The Saxons of that age were a bestowed. But it is necessary to observe, that numerous and formidable people, who inhabitthis eminent prelate was an apostle of modern || ed a considerable part of Germany, and were fashion, and had, in many respects, departed engaged in perpetual quarrels with the Franks from the excellent model exhibited in the con- concerning their boundaries, and other matters duct and ministry of the primitive and true of complaint. Hence Charlemagne turned apostles. Beside his zeal for the glory and his arms against this powerful nation, in 772, authority of the Roman pontiff, which equalled, with a design, not only to subdue that spirit of if it did not surpass, his zeal for the service revolt with which they had so often troubled of Christ and the propagation of his religion, the empire, but also to abolish their idolatrous many other things unworthy of a truly Chris-worship, and engage them to embrace the tan minister are laid to his charge. In com- Christian religion. He hoped, by their conbating the pagan superstitions, he did not al- version, to vanquish their obstinacy, imagining ways use those arms with which the ancient her- that the divine precepts of the Gospel would alds of the Gospel gained such victories in be-assuage their impetuous and restless passions,

*An ample account of this eminent man is to be found in a learned dissertation of Gudenius, de S. Bonifacio Germanorum Apostolo, published at Helmstadt in 1722. See also Fabricii Biblioth. Latina medii Evi, tom. i. p. 709.-Hist. Liter. de la France, tom. iv. p. 92, and Mabillon, in Annalibus Benedictinis.

The French Benedictine monks ingenuously confess 'hat Boniface was an over-zealous partisan of the Roman pontiff, and attributed more authority to him than was just and reasonable. Their words, in their Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. iv. p. 106, are as follow: Il exprime son devouement pour le Saint Siege en des termes qui ne sont pas assez proportionnes a la dignite du caractere episcopal."

mitigate their ferocity, and induce them to submit quietly to the government of the Franks. These projects were great in idea, but difficult in execution; accordingly, the first

* Baronius, Annal. Eccles. tom. viii. ad annum 716. sect. 10. ar. Maichelbeck, Historia Frisingensis, tom. i

Herm. Bruschii, Chronologia Monaster. Gerinan. p. 30. Anton. Pagi Critica in Annales Baronii, tom. ii. ad annum 759, sect. ix. Histoire Literaire de la France, tom iv. p. 124.

Hucbaldi Vita S. Lebuini in Laur. Surii Vitis Sanc tor. d. 12. No". p. 277.-Jo. Molleri Cimbria Literata tom. ii. p. 464

attempt to convert the Saxons, after having || Christianity in 785, and to promise an adher subdued them, was unsuccessful, because it ence to that divine religion for the rest of their was made, without the aid of violence or days.* To p:event, however, the Saxons from threats, by the bishops and monks, whom the renouncing a religion which they had embracvictor had left among that conquered people, ed with reluctance, many bishops were ap whose obstinate attachment to idolatry no ar- pointed to reside among them, schools also guments or exhortations could overcome. More were erected, and monasteries founded, that forcible means were afterwards used to draw the means of instruction might not be wanting. them into the pale of the church, in the wars The same precautions were employed among which Charlemagne carried on, in the years the Huns in Pannonia, to maintain in the pro775, 776, and 780, against that valiant people, fession of Christianity that fierce people whom whose love of liberty was excessive, and whose Charlemagne had converted to the faith, when, aversion to every species of sacerdotal authori- || exhausted and dejected by various defeats, they ty was inexpressible.* During these wars, were no longer able to make head against his their attachment to the superstition of their victorious arms, and chose rather to be Chrisancestors was so warmly combated by the al- tians than slaves.† lurements of reward, by the terror of punishment, and by the imperious language of victory, that they suffered themselves to be bap-magne had performed in the service of Christised, though with inward reluctance, by the missionaries whom the emperor sent among them for that purpose.† Fierce seditions, indeed, were soon after renewed, and fomented by Witekind and Albion, two of the most valiant among the Saxon chiefs, who attempted to abolish the Christian worship by the same violent methods which had contributed to its establishment. But the courage and liberality of Charlemagne, alternately employed to suppress this new rebellion, engaged these chiefs to make a public and solemn profession of

It will be proper here to transcribe, from the epistles of the famous Alcuin, once abbot of Canterbury, a re

VII. Succeeding generations, filled with a grateful' sense of the exploits which Charle

tianity, canonised his memory, and turned this bloody warrior into an eminent saint. In the twelfth century, Frederic I. emperor of the Romans, ordered Paschal II. whom he had raised to the pontificate, to enroll the name of this mighty conqueror among the tutelary saint of the church; and indeed Charlemagne meiited this honour, according to the opinions which prevailed in that dark period; for, to have enriched the clergy with large and magnificent donations,§ and to have extended the boundaries of the church, no matter by what methods, were then considered as the highest merits, and as sufficient pretensions to the hon our of saintship; but, in the esteem of those who judge of the nature and characters of sanctity by the decisions of the Gospel upon that head, the sainted emperor will appear to have been utterly unworthy of that dignity; for, not to enter into a particular detail of his Vices, the number of which counterbalanced that of his virtues, it is undeniably evident, that his ardent and ill-conducted zeal for the conversion of the Huns, Friselanders, and Sax

ambition, than by a principle of true piety; and that his main view, in these religious exploits, was to subdue the converted nations under his dominion, and to tame them to his yoke, which they supported with impatience, and shook off by frequent revolts. It is, moreover, well known, that this boasted saint made no scru ple of seeking the alliance of the infidel Saracens, that he might be more effectually enabled to crush the Greeks, notwithstanding their profession of the Christian religion.||

markable passage, which will show us the reasons that contributed principally to give the Saxons an aversion to Christianity, and at the same time will expose the absurd and preposterous manner of teaching used by the ecclesiastics who were sent to convert them. This passage in the 104th epistle, and the 1647th page of his works, is as follows: "Si tanta instantia leve Christi jugum et onus ejus leve durissimo Saxonum populo prædicarentur, quanta decimarum redditi vel legalis pro parvissimis quibuslibet culpis edictis necessitas exigebatur, forte baptismatis sacramenta non abhorrerent. Sint tandem aliquando doctores fidei apostolicis eruditi exemplis: sint prædicatores, non prædatores." Here the reader may see a live-ons, was more animated by the suggestions of ly picture of the kind of apostles that flourished at this time: apostles who were more zealous in exacting tithes, and extending their authority, than in propagating the sublime truths and precepts of the Gospel; and yet these very apostles are said to have wrought stupendous miracles. Alcuinus apud Gul. Malmesbur. de Gestis Regum Anglorum, lib. i. cap. iv. p. 23, inter Rer. Anglic. Script. edit. Francof. 1601. In this work we find the following passage, which proves what we have said with respect to the unworthy methods that were used in converting the Saxons. "Antiqui Saxones et omnes Fresonum populi, instante rege Carolo, alios præmiis et alios minis solici tante, ad fidem Christi conversi sunt." See also two passages in the Capitularia Regum Francor. tom. i. p. 246 and 252. From the first we learn, that those Saxons who abandoned the pagan superstitions were "restored to the liberty they had forfeited by the fate of arms, and freed from the obligation of paying tribute;" and, in the second, we find the following severe law, that "every Saxon who contemptuously refused to receive the sacrament of baptism, and persisted in his adherence to Paganism, was to be punished with death." While such rewards and punishments were employed in the cause of religion, there was no occasion for miracles to advance its progress; for these motives were sufficient to draw all mankind to an hypocritical and external profession of the Gospel; but it is easy to imagine what sort of Christians the Saxons must have been, who were dragooned into the church in this abominable manner. Compare, with the authors mentioned in this note, Launoius, de veteri More baptizandi Judæos et Infideles, cap. v. vi. p. 703, tom. ii. op. part ii. This author assures us, that Adrian, the first Roman pontiff of that name, honoured with his approbation Charlemagne's method of converting the Saxons.

VIII. The many and stupendous miracles which are said to have been wrought by the Christian missionaries, who were sent to convert the barbarous nations, have lost, in our times, the credit they obtained in former ages

Eginhartus, de Vita Caroli M.-Adam Bremensis, lib. i. cap. viii. See also the writers of the history and exploits of Charlemagne, enumerated by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Latina medii Evi, tom. i. p. 950.

Vita S. Rudberti in Henric. Canisii Lectionibus antiquis, tom. iii. part ii. p. 340.-Pauli Debreceni Historia Ecclesiæ Reformat. in Hungar. et Transylvania, a Lampio edita, cap. ii. p. 10.

Henr. Canisii Lect. tom. iii. par. 1. p. 207.--Walchii Dissert. de Caroli Magni Canonizatione.

§ Vid. Caroli Testamentum in Steph. Baluzii Cap itula ribus Regum Francor. tom. i. p. 487.

See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, tom. ix. cap. ii. p 40

The corrupt discipline that then prevailed, adnitted those fallacious stratagems, which are very improperly called pious frauds; nor did the heralds of the Gospel think it at all unlawful to terrify or allure to the profession of Christianity, by fictitious prodigies, those obdurate hearts, which they could not subdue by reason and argument. It is not, however to be supposed, that all those, who acquired renown by their miracles, were chargeable with this fanatical species of artifice and fraud; for as, on one hand, those ignorant and superstitious nations were disposed to look upon, as miraculous, every event which had an unusual aspect, so, on the other, the Christian doctors themselves were so uninstructed and superficial, so little acquainted with the powers of nature, and the relations and connexions of things in their ordinary course, that uncommon events, however natural, were considered by them as miraculous interpositions of the Most High. This will appear obvious to such as read, without superstition or partiality, the Acts of the Saints who flourished in this and the following centuries.

CHAPTER II.

Concerning the calamitous Events that happened

to the Church during this Century.

I. THE eastern empire had now fallen from its former strength and grandeur through the repeated shocks of dreadful revolutions, and the consuming power of intestine calamities. The throne was now become the seat of terror, inquietude, and suspicion; nor was any reign attended with an uninterrupted tranquillity. In this century three emperors were dethroned, loaded with ignominy, and sent into banishment. Under Leo the Isaurian, and his son Constantine, surnamed Copronymus, arose that fatal controversy about the worship of images, which proved a source of innumerable calamities and troubles, and weakened, almost incredibly, the force of the empire. These troubles and dissensions left the Saracens at liberty to ravage the provinces of Asia and Africa, to oppress the Grecks in the most barbarous manner, and to extend their territories and dominion on all sides, as also to oppose every where the progress of Christianity, and, in some places, even to extirpate it. But the troubles of the empire, and the calamities of the church, did not end here: for, about the middle of this century, they were assailed by new enemies, still more fierce and inhuman than those whose usurpations they had hitherto suffered. These were the Turks, a tribe of the Tartars, or at least their descendants, who, breaking forth from the ir accessible wilds about mount Cau

casus, overspread Colchis, Iberia, and Albania, rushed into Armenia, and, after having subdu ed the Saracens, turned their victorious arms against the Greeks, whom, in process of time. they reduced under their dominion.

*

II. In 714, the Saracens crossed the sea which separates Spain from Africa, dispersed the army of Roderic king of the Spanish Goths, whose defeat was principally occasioned by the treachery of their general Julian, and made themselves masters of the greatest part of the territories of this vanquished prince. At that time the empire of the Visigoths, which had subsisted in Spain above three hundred years, was totally overturned by these fierce and savage invaders, who also took possession of all the maritime parts of Gaul, from the Pyrenean mountains to the river Rhone, whence they made frequent excursions, and ravaged the neighbouring countries with fire and sword.

The rapid progress of these bold invaders was, indeed, checked by Charles Martel, who gained a signal victory over them in a bloody action near Poictiers, in 732. But the vanquished spoilers soon recovered their strength and their ferocity, and returned with new violence to their devastations. This engaged Charlemagne to lead a formidable army into Spain, in the hope of delivering that whole country from the oppressive yoke of the Saracens: but this grand enterprise, though it did not entirely miscarry, was not attended with the signal success that was expected from it.‡

The inroads of this warlike people were felt by several of the western provinces, beside those of France and Spain. Several parts of Italy suffered from their incursions; the island of Sardinia was reduced under their yoke; and Sicily was ravaged and oppressed by them in the most inhuman manner. Hence the Christian religion in Spain and Sardinia suffered in expressibly under these violent usurpers.

In Germany, and the adjacent countries, the Christians were assailed by another sort of enemies; for all such as adhered to the pagan superstitions beheld them with the most inveterate hatred, and persecuted them with the most unrelenting violence and fury.§ Hence, in several places, castles and various fortifications were erected to restrain the incursions of these barbarian zealots.

Jo. Mariana, Rerum Hispanicarum Hist. lib. vi. cap. Jo. de Ferreras, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. xxi.-Renaudot, Historia Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 253. p.425.

Paulus Diaconus, de Gestis Longobard. lib. vi. cap. xlvi. liii.-Mariana, lib. vii. cap. iii.—Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Abderamus.--Ferreras, tom. ii. p. 463. torie, tom. ii. p. 392.--Ferreras, tom. ii. Henr. de Bunau, Teutsche Keyser-und-Reichs-Hisp. 506. Servati Lupi Vita Wigberti, p. 304

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

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abandoned the continent, and fixed their resi fore, of the Latin writers, who were distindence in Britain and Ireland.* Those, thereguished by their learning and genius, were all (a few French and Italians excepted) either Britons or Hibernians, such as Alcuin, Bede, Egbert, Clemens, Dungallus, Acca, and others. Charlemagne, whose political talents were embellished by a considerable degree of learning, and an ardent zeal for the culture of the sciences, endeavoured to dispel the profound ignorance that reigned in his dominions; in which excellent undertaking he was animated and directed by the counsels of Alcuin. With this view he drew, first from Italy, and after

I. AMONG the Greeks of this age were some men of genius and talents, who might have contributed to prevent the total decline of literature; but their zeal was damped by the tumults and desolations that reigned in the empire; and while both church and state were menaced with approaching ruin, the learned were left destitute of that protection which gives both vigour and success to the culture of the arts and sciences. Hence few or none of the Greeks were famous, either for elegance of diction, true wit, copious erudition, or a zeal-wards from Britain and Ireland, by his liberalious attachment to the study of philosophy, and the investigation of truth. Frigid homilies, insipid narrations of the exploits of pretended saints, vain and subtile disputes about inessential and trivial subjects, vehement and bombastic declamations for or against the erection and worship of images, and histories composed without method or judgment, were the monuments of Grecian learning in this miserable

age.

ty, eminent men, who had distinguished themselves in the various branches of literature; and excited the several orders of the clergy and monks, by various encouragements, and the nobility, and others of eminent rank, by his own example, to the pursuit of knowledge in all its branches, human and divine.

IV. In the prosecution of this noble design, the greatest part of the bishops erected, by the express order of the emperor, cathedral schools II. It must, however, be observed, that the (so called from their contiguity to the princiAristotelian philosophy was taught every where pal church in each diocese,) in which the in the public schools, and was propagated in youth, set apart for the service of Christ, reall places with considerable success. The doc-ceived a learned and religious education. trine of Plato had lost all its credit in the Those abbots also, who had any zeal for the schools, after the repeated sentences of con- cause of Christianity, opened schools in their demnation that had been passed upon the monasteries, in which the more learned of the opinions of Origen, and the troubles which fraternity instructed such as were designed for the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies had the monastic state, or the sacerdotal order, in excited in the church; so that Platonism now the Latin language, and other branches of was almost confined to the solitary retreats of learning, suitable to their future destination. the monastic orders. Of all the writers in this It was formerly believed that the university of century, who contributed to the illustration Paris was erected by Charlemagne; but this and progress of the Aristotelian philosophy, opinion is rejected by such as have studied, the most eminent was John Damascenus, who with impartiality, the history of this age, composed a concise, yet comprehensive view though it is undeniably evident, that this great of the doctrines of the Stagirite, for the in-prince had the honour of laying, in some meastruction of the more ignorant, and in a manner adapted to common capacities. This little work excited numbers, both in Greece and Syria, to the study of that philosophy, whose proselytes increased daily. The Nestorians and Jacobites were also extremely diligent in the study of Aristotle's writings; and from this repository they armed themselves with sophisms and quibbles, which they employed against the Greeks in the controversy concerning the nature and person of Christ.

III. The literary history of the Latins exhibits innumerable instances of the grossest gnorance, which will not, however, appear surprising to such as consider, with attention, the state of Europe in this century. If we except some poor remains of learning, which were yet to be found at Rome, and in certain cities of Italy, the sciences seemed to have * See Steph. Baluz. Observat. ad Reginonem Prumiensem, p. 540.

Lud. Ant. Muratori, Antiq. Italicæ medii Ævi, tom. I. p. 11.

sure, the foundation of that noble institution, and that the beginnings from which it arose may be ascribed to him. However this question be decided, it is certain, that the zeal of this emperor, for the propagation and advancement of letters, was very great, and manifested its ardour by a considerable number of excellent establishments; nor among others must we pass with silence the famous Palatine school, which he erected with a view to banish ignorance from his court, and in which the princes of the blood, and the children of the nobility, were educated by the most learned and illustrious masters of the times.‡

* Jac. Usserius, Præf. ad Syllogen Epistolarum Hiber nicarum.

The reasons that have been used, to prove Charlemagne the founder of the university of Paris, are accu rately colected by Du Boulay, Historia Academiæ Paris. tom. i. p. 91. But they have been refuted by the following learned men in a victorious manner, viz. Mabillon, Act. Sanct. Ord. Benedict. tom. v. Præf. sect. 181, 182. Launoy. Claud. Joly, de Scholis.

Boulay tom. i. p. 281.-Mabillon, sect 179

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