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 nis 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 a quainted with the true princi- two distinct persons. In consequence of this, ples and doctrines of Christianity than Boni- Felix was successively condemned by the coun face 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 n this barbarous age.* Be that as it will, the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, to retract his erbeth 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 diver sity 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. We find an enumeration of the erroneous opinions Clement in the letters of Boniface, Epistol. cxxxv. p. 139. 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, Ls 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 Ævi, 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 Benedic'ine monks in their Histoire Literaire de la France, ton. iv. Jo. G. Dorscheus Collat. ad Concilium Francofurt, p. 101.-Werenfels, Logomachiis Eruditorum, p. 459. ¿ Basnagius, Præf. ad F herium in Canisii Lection. antiquis, tom. ii. part i. p. 28 G. Calixtus, Singul. Diss. 1 THE NINTH CENTURY. PART I. THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. Cancerning the Prosperous Events which happened to the Church in this Century. quently among the Danes, Cimbrians, anu Swedes, in order to promote the cause of Christ, to form new churches, and to confirm and establish those which he had already incorporated; in all which arduous enterprises he passed his life in the most imminent dangers, until, in 865, he concluded his glorious course.* I. THE reign of Charlemagne had been singularly auspicious to the Christian cause; the life of that great prince was principally employed in the most zealous efforts to propagate and establish the reiigion of Jesus among the III. About the middle of this century the Huns, Saxons, Friselanders, and other unen- Mosians, Bulgarians, and Gazarians, and lightened nations; but his piety was mixed after them the Bohemians and Moravians, with violence, his spiritual conquests were ge- were converted to Christianity by Methodius nerally made by the force of arms, and this and Cyril, two Greek monks, whom the emimpure mixture tarnishes the lustre of his no- press Theodora had sent to dispel the darkness blest exploits. His son Louis, undeservedly of those idolatrous nations. The zeal of surnamed the Debonnaire, or the Meek, in- Charlemagne, and of his pious missionaries, herited the defects of his father without his had been formerly exerted in the same cause, virtues, and was his equal in violence and cru- and among the same people,§ but with so little elty, but greatly his inferior in all worthy and success, that any faint notions which they had valuable accomplishments. Under his reign a received of the Christian doctrine were entirely very favourable opportunity was offered of pro-effaced. The instructions of the Grecian docpagating the Gospel among the northern na-tors had a much better, and also a more pertions, and particularly among the inhabitants manent effect; but, as they recommended to of Sweden and Denmark. A petty king of their new disciples the forms of worship, and Jutland, named Harald Klack, being driven the various rites and ceremonies used among from his kingdom and country, in 826, by the Greeks,|| this was the occasion of much Regner Lodbrock, threw himself at the em- religious animosity and contention in afterperor's feet, and implored his succours against times, when the lordly pontiff's exerted all their the usurper. Louis granted his request, and vehemence, and employed all the means which promised the exiled prince his protection and they could devise, though with imperfect suc assistance, on condition, however, that he cess, for reducing these nations under the diswould embrace Christianity, and admit the cipline and jurisdiction of the Latin church. ministers of that religion to preach in his dominions. Harald submitted to these conditions, 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. - II. After the death of his learned and pious companion Authbert, the zealous and indefatigable Ansgar made a voyage into Sweden, in 828, where his ministerial labours were also crowned with distinguished success. Returning into Germany, in 831, he was loaded by Louis with ecclesiastical honours, being created 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, in which it involved the pious prelate, were truly formidable. Accordingly he travelled fre IV. Under the reign of Basilius, the Macedonian, who ascended the imperial throne of 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 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 Mosia, by giving to the latter, who were Europeans, the title of the former, who dwelt in Asia. Jo. George Stredowsky, Sacra Moraviæ Historia, lib. L'Enfant, Histoire de la Guerre des Huss.es, liv chiefly in view the happiness of mankind, endeavoured to promote the gospel of truth and peace by rational persuasion, and seconded their arguments by the victorious power of exemplary lives. It must, however, be confessed, that the doctrine they taught was far from being confortable to the pure and excellent rules of faith and practice laid down by our divine Saviour and his holy apostles; for their religious system was corrupted by a variety of superstitious rites, and a multitude of absurd inventions. It is farther certain, that there remained among these converted nations too many traces of the idolatrous religion of their ancestors, notwithstanding the zealous labours of their Christian guides: and it appears also, that these pious missionaries were content with introducing an external profession of the true religion among their new proselytes. It would be, however, unjust to accuse them on this account of negligence or corruption in the discharge of their ministry, since in order to gain over these fierce and savage nations to the proposal was received with admiration and joy; || and it was also answered by a suitable ardour and zeal for the conversion of a people that seemed so ingenuously disposed to embrace the truth: accordingly, a competent number of Grecian doctors were sent among them to instruct them in the knowledge of the Gospel, and to admit them by baptism. nto the Christian church. The warlike nation of the Russians were converted under the same emperor, but not in the same manner, or from the same noble and rational motives. Having entered into a treaty of peace with that prince, they were engaged by various presents and promises to embrace the Gospel, in consequence of which they received not only the Christian ministers that were appointed to instruct them, but also an archbishop, whom the Grecian patriarch Ignatius had sent among them, to perfect their conversion and establish their church. Such were the beginnings of Chris tianity among the bold and warlike Russians, who were inhabitants of the Ukraine, and who, before their conversion, had fitted out a formi-church, it may have been absolutely necessary dable fleet, and, setting sail from Kiow for Constantinople, had spread terror and dismay through the whole empire.‡ V. It is proper to observe, with respect to the various conversions which we have now been relating, that they were undertaken upon much better principles, and executed in a more pious and rational manner, than those of the preceding ages. The ministers, who were now sent to instruct and convert the barbarous nations, did not, like many of their predecessors, employ the terror of penal laws, to affright men into the profession of Christianity; nor, in establishing churches upon the ruins of idolatry, were they principally attentive to promote the grandeur and extend the authority of the Roman pontiffs; their views were more noble, and their conduct more suitable to the genius of the religion they professed. They had * We are indebted for this account of the conversion of the Sclavonians to the treatise de administrando Imperio, composed by the learned emperor Constantine Porphyrogeneta, and published by Bandurius in his Imper. Orient. tom. i. Constantine gives the same account of this event in the life of his grandfather Basilius, the Macedonian, sect. 54, published in the Corpus Scriptorum Byzantinorum, tom. xvi. f Constantinus Porph. in Vita Basilii Macedonis, sect. 96. p. 157. Corp. Byzant. See also the Narratio de Ruthenorum Conversione, published both in Greek and Latin by Bandurius, in his Imper. Orient. The learned Lequien in his Oriens Christianus, tom. i. p. 1257, gives a very inaccurate account of those Russians who were converted to Christianity under the reign of Basilius the Macedonian; and in this he does no more to indulge them in some of their infirmities and prejudices, and to connive at many things, which pious missionaries could not approve, and which, in other circumstances, they would have been careful to correct. CHAPTER II. Concerning the Calamitous Events that happened to the Church during this Century. I. THE Saracens had now extended their usurpations with amazing success. Masters of Asia, a few provinces excepted, they pushed their conquests to the extremities of India, and obliged a great part of Africa to receive their yoke; nor were their enterprises in the west without effect, since Spain and Sardinia sub mitted to their arms, and fell under their do minion. But their conquests did not end here; for, in 827, by the treason of Euphemius, they made themselves masters of the rich and fertile island of Sicily; and, toward the conclusion of this century, an army of those barbarians, proceeding from Asia, seized several cities of Calabria, and spread the terror of their victorious arms even to the very walls of Rome, while Crete, Corsica, and other islands, were either joined to their possessions, or ravaged by their incursions. It is easy to comprehend that this overgrown prosperity of a nation accustomed to bloodshed and rapine, and which also beheld the Christians with the utmost aversion, must have been every where detrimental to the pro gress of the Gospel, and to the tranquillity of the church. In the east, more especially, a than adopt the errors of many who wrote before him upon the same subject. Nor is he consistent with himself; for in one place he affirms, that the people here spoken of were the Russians who lived in the neighbour-prodigious number of Christian families emhood of the Bulgarians, while in another he maintains, that by these Russians we are to understand the GazariThe only reason he alleges to support the latter opinion is, that, among the Christian doctors sent to in ans. struct the Russians, mention is made of Cyril, who converted the Gazari to Christianity. This reason shows, that the learned writer had a most imperfect knowledge both of these Russians and the Gazari. He is also guilty of other mistakes upon the same subject. There is a much better explanation of this matter given by the very learned Theoph. Sigifred Bayer, Dissert. ce Russorum prima Expeditione Constantinopolitana, which is published in the sixth volume of the Commentaria Acad. Scienjar. Petropolitanæ. VOL. I.--21 braced the religion of their conquerors, that they might live in the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions. Many, indeed, refused this base and criminal compliance, and with a pious magnanimity adhered to their principles in the face of persecution: but such were gradually reduced to a miserable condition, and were not only robbed of the best part of their wealth, and deprived of their worldly advantages, but, what was still more deplorable, they fell by degrees into such incredible igno: ance and stu heart of Italy; for, in 857, they ravaged and plundered the city of Luna in the most cruel manner; and, about three years after, Pisa, and several other towns of Italy, met with the saine fate.* The ancient histories of the Franks abound with the most dismal accounts of their horrid exploits. III. The first views of these savage invaders extended no farther than plunder; but, charmed at length with the beauty and fertility of the provinces which they were so cruelly depopulating, they began to form settlements in them; nor were the European princes in a condition to oppose their usurpations. On the contrary, Charles the Bald was obliged, in 850, to resign a considerable part of his dominions to the powerful banditti; and a few years after, under the reign of Charles the Gross, emperor and king of France, the famous Nor pidity, that, in process of time, there were scarcely any remains of Christianity to be found among them, beside the mere name, and a few external rites and ceremonies. The Saracens who had fixed themselves in Europe, particularly those who were settled in Spain, were of a much milder disposition, and seemed to have put off the greatest part of their native ferocity; so that the Christians, generally speaking, lived peaceably under their dominion, and were permitted to observe the laws, and to enjoy the privileges of their holy profession. It must, however, be confessed, that this mild and tolerating conduct of the Saracens was not without some few exceptions of cruelty.* II. The European Christians had the most cruel sufferings to undergo from another quarter, even from the insatiable fury of a swarm of barbarians that issued out from the northern provinces. The Normans, under which gene-man chief Godofred entered with an army into ral term are comprehended the Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes, whose habitations lay along the coasts of the Baltic sea, were a people accustomed to carnage and rapine. Their petty kings and chiefs, who subsisted by piracy and plunder, had already, during the reign of Charlemagne, infested with their fleets the coasts of the German ocean, but were restrained by the opposition they met with from the vigilance and activity of that warlike prince. In this century, however, they became more bold and enterprising, made frequent irruptions into Germany, Britain, Friseland, and Gaul, and carried along with them, wherever they went, fire and sword, desolation and horror. The impetuous fury of these savage barbarians not only spread desolation through the Spanish provinces, but even penetrated into the very *See, for example, the account that is given of Eulogius, who suffered martyrdom at Cordova, in the Acta Sanctorum ad d. xi. Martii, tom. ii. p. 88; as also of Roderic and Solomon, two Spanish martyrs of this century. Ibid. ad d. xiii. Martii, p. 328. †Jo. de Ferreras, Historia de Espana, vol. ii. Piracy was esteemed among the northern nations a very honourable and noble profession; and hence the sons of kings, and the young nobility, were trained up to this species of robbery, and made it their principal business to perfect them Friseland, and obstinately refused to sheath his sword before he was master of the whole province. Such, however, of the Normans as settled among the Christians, contracted a more gentle turn of mind, and gradually departed from their primitive brutality. Their marriages with the Christians contributed, no doubt, to civilize them; and engaged them to abandon the superstition of their ancestors with more facility, and to embrace the Gospel with more readiness than they would have otherwise done. Thus the proud conqueror of Friseland solemnly embraced the Christian religion after he had received in marriage, from Charles the Gross, Gisela, the daughter of Lothaire the younger. selves in it. Nor will this appear very surprising to such as consider the religion of these nations, and the barbarism of the times. See Jo. Lud. Holberg, Historia Danorum et Norvegorum Navalis, in Scriptis Societatis Scientiar. Hafniensis, tom. iii. p. 349, in which there are a multitude of curious and interesting relations concerning the ancient piracies, drawn from the Danish and Norwegian annals. Muratori. See the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, published by † Annales incerti Auctoris, in Pithæi Scriptor. Francie. Reginonis Prumiensis Annal. lib. ii p. 46. PART II. THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH CHAPTER I. find in Constantinople, at this time, several per Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy sons who excelled in eloquence and poetry; during this Century. I. THE Grecian empire, in this century, was in circumstances seemingly calculated to extinguish all taste for letters and philosophy, and all zeal for the cultivation of the sciences. The liberality, however, of the emperors, some of whom were men of learning and taste, and the wise precautions taken by the patriarchs of Constantinople, among whom Photius deserves the first rank in point of erudition, contributed to attach a certain number of learned men to that imperial city, and thus prevented the total decline of letters. Accordingly, well some who displayed, in their writings against the Latins, a considerable knowledge of the art of reasoning, and a high degree of dexterity in the management of controversy; and others who composed the history of their own times with accuracy and elegance. The controversy with the Latins, when it grew more keen and animated, contributed, in a particular manner, to excite the literary emulation of the disputants; rendered them studious to acquire new ideas, and a rich and copious elocution, adorned with the graces of elegance and wit; and thus roused and invigorated talents that were ready to perish in indolence and sloth. II. We learn from Zonaras, that the study of philosophy lay for a long time neglected in this age; but it was revived, with a zeal for the sciences in general, under the emperor The ophilus, and his son Michael III. This revival of letters may principally be ascribed to the encouragement and protection which the learned received from Bardas, who had been declared by Cæsar, himself an illiterate man, but a warm friend of the celebrated Photius, the great patron of science, by whose counsel he was, undoubtedly, directed in this matter. At the head of all the learned men to whom Bardas committed the culture of the sciences, he placed Leo, surnamed the Wise, a man of the most profound and uncommon erudition, and who afterwards was consecrated bishop of Thessalonica. Photius explained the Categories of Aristotle, while Michael Psellus gave a brief exposition of the better works of that great philosopher. mathematics, astronomy, physic, and philosophy, that were taught in Europe from the tenth century, were, for the most part, drawn from the Arabian schools that were established in Spain and Italy, or from the writings of the Arabian sages. Hence the Saracens may, in one respect, be justly considered as the restorers of learning in Europe. IV. In that part of Europe which was subject to the dominion of the Franks, Charlemagne laboured with incredible zeal and ardour for the advancement of useful learning, and animated his subjects to the culture of the sciences in all their various branches: so that, had his successors been disposed to follow his example, and capable of acting upon the noble plan which he formed, the empire, in a little time, would have been entirely delivered from barbarism and ignorance. It is true, this great prince left in his family a certain spirit of emulation, which animated his immediate successors to imitate, in some measure, his zeal for the prosperity of the republic of letters. Louis the Debonnaire both formed and executed several designs that were extremely conducive to the progress of the arts and sciences;* and his zeal, in this respect, was surpassed by the ardour with which his son Charles the Bald exerted himself in the propagation of letters, and in exciting the emulation of the learned by the most alluring marks of his protection and favour. This great patron of the sciences drew the literati to his court from all parts, took a particular delight in their conversation, multiplied and embellished the seminaries of learning, and protected, in a more especial manner, the Aulic school, of which mention has already been made, and which was first erected in the seventh century, for the education of the royal family and the first nobility. His brother Lothaire endeavoured to revive in Italy the drooping sciences, and to rescue them from that state of languor and decay into which the corruption and indolence of the clergy had permitted them to fall. For this purpose he erected schools in the eight principal cities of Italy, in 823, but with little success, since that country appears to have been entirely destitute of men of learning and ge III. The Arabians, who, instead of cultivating the arts and sciences, had thought of nothing hitherto, but of extending their territories, were now excited to literary pursuits by Almamoun, otherwise called Abu Giafar Abdallah, whose zeal for the advancement of letters was great, and whose munificence toward men of learning and genius was truly royal. Under the auspicious protection of this celebrated khalif of Syria and Egypt, the Arabians made a rapid and astonishing progress in various kinds of learning. This excellent prince began to reign about the time of the death of Charlemagne, and died in 833. He erected the famous schools of Bagdad, Cufa, and Basra,|| and established seminaries of learning in several other cities; he drew to his court men of eminent parts by his extraordinary liberality, || set up noble libraries in various places, caused translations to be made of the best Grecian productions into the Arabic language at a vast expense, and employed every method of promoting the cause of learning, that became a great and generous prince, whose zeal for the sciences was attended with knowledge. It was under the reign of this celebrated khalif, that the Arabians began to take pleasure in the Grecian learning, and to propagate it, by degrees, not only in Syria and Africa, but also innius during the ninth century.§ Spain and Italy; and from this period they give us a long catalogue of celebrated philosophers, physicians, astronomers, and mathematicians, who were ornaments to their nation through several succeeding ages; and in this certainly they do not boast without reason, though we are not to consider, as literally true, all the wonderful and pompous things which the more modern writers of the Saracen history tell us of these illustrious philosophers. After this period the European Christians profitted much by the Arabian learning, and were highly indebted to the Saracens for improvement in the various sciences; for the Zonar. Annal. tom. ii. lib. xvi. Abulpharajius, Historia Dynastiar. p. 246.-Georg. Elmacin. Histor. Saracen. lib. ii. p. 139.-Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. article Mamun, p. 545. See the treatise of Leo Africanus, de Medicis et Philosophis Arabibus, published by Fabricius in his Biblio heca Græca, tom. xii. p. 259. In England learning had a better fate under the auspicious protection of king Alfred, who acquired an immortal name, not only by the admirable progress he made in all kinds of elegant and useful knowledge,|| but also by the care he took to multiply men of letters and genius in his dominions, and to restore to the * See the Histoire Literaire de la France, tom iv. 583. Herman. Conringii Antiquit. Academicæ, p. 320.- See the edict for that purpose among the Capitularia, published by Muratori in the first volume of his compilation de Rebus Italicis. See Muratori's Antiq. Ital. medii Evi, tom. iii. p. 829. See Ant. Wood. Hist. et Antiquit. Academ. Oxoniens. lib. i. p. 13.-Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. i. p. 211.General Dictionary, at the article Alfred. (This prince, among other pious and learned abours, translated the Pastoral of Gregory I, Boetius de Corsolatione, and Bede's Ecclesiastical History.) |