* longer a question in our days, from what source these methods of deciding dubious cases and accusations derived their origin; all agree that they were mere delusions, drawn from the barbarous rites of paganism, and not only opposite to the precepts of the Gospel, but absolutely destructive of the spirit of true religion. The pontiffs, however, and the inferior clergy, encouraged these odious superstitions, and went so far as to accompany the practice of them with the celebration of the Lord's Supper and other rites, in order to give them a Christian aspect, and to recommend them to the veneration and confidence of the multitude. CHAPTER V. Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled the Church during this Century. I THE sects, that had sprung up in the earlier ages of the church, subsisted still, with little change in their situations or circumstances. Such of them as were considerably numerous, fixed their settlements beyond the limits both of the Greek and Latin empires, and thus out of the reach of their enemies. The Nestorians more especially, and the Monophysites, secure under the protection of the Arabians, were extremely industrious in maintaining their credit, and also discovered a warm and active zeal in the propagation of Christianity among those who were yet unacquainted with that divine religion. Some learned men are of opinion, that it was only in this century that the Abyssinians or Ethiopians embraced the sentiments of the Monophysites, in consequence of the exhortations addressed to them by the doctors of that sect who resided in Egypt. But this is undoubtedly an erroneous account of the matter; for it is certain, that the Abyssinians, who were accustomed to receive their spiritual guides from the bishop of Alexandria, commenced Monophysites in the seventh century, if not sooner; for in that period the Arabians made played a trick of much the same nature in the fifth century. Jo. Loccenii Antiquit. Sueo-Gothicæ, lib. ii. cap. vii. viii. p. 144. This barbarous method of deciding controversies by duel was practised even by the clergy. See Just. Hen. Bohmeri Jus Eccles. Protestantium, tom. v. p. 88. Petr. Lambecius, Res Hamburg. lib. ii. p. 39.Usserii Sylloge Epistol. Hibernic. p. 81.-Johnson. Leges Eccles. Britanniæ.-Michael de la Roche, Memoires Liter. de la Grande Bretagne, tom. viii. p. 391. § See Agobardus, contra Judicium Dei, tom. i. op. et contra Legem Gundobaldi, cap. ix. p. 114.-Hier. Biguonius, ad Formulas Marculphi, cap. xii.-Baluzius, ad Agobardum, p. 104. *Strabo tells us, in the fifth book of his Geography, that, while the sacred rites of the goddess Ferona were celebrated in a grove not far from mount Soracte, several persons, transported with the imaernary presence of this pretended divinity, fell into fits of enthusiasm, and walked bare-footed over heaps of burning coals without receiving the least damage The historian adds, that a spectacle so extraordinary drew a prodigious concourse of people to this annual solemnity. Pliny relates something of the same nature concerning the Hirpii. See his Nat. Hist. bcok vii. chap. ii. themselves masters of Egypt, oppressed the Greeks, and granted to the Monophysites such a powerful protection, as enabled them to reduce under their jurisdiction almost all the churches that had been established in Egypt." II. The Greeks, during the greatest part of this century, were engaged in a most bitter controversy, or, to speak more properly, in a bloody and barbarous war with the Paulicians, a sect that may be considered as a branch of the Manichæans, and which resided principally in Armenia. This pernicious sect is said to have been formed by two brothers, Paul and John, sons of Callinices, and inhabitants of Samosata, from the former of whom it derived its name; though others are of opinion that the Paulicians were so called from another Paul, an Armenian by birth, who lived under the reign of Justinian II. Be that as it may, a certain zealot called Constantine revived, in the seventh century, under the government of Constans, this drooping faction, which had suffered deeply from the violence of its adversaries, and was ready to expire under the severity of the imperial edicts, and of those penal laws which were executed against its adherents with the utmost rigor. Constans, Justinian II., and Leo the Isaurian, exerted their zeal against the Paulicians with a peculiar degree of bitterness and fury, left no method of oppression unemployed, and neglected no means of accomplishing their ruin; but their efforts were ineffectual, nor could all their power, or all their barbarity, exhaust the patience or conquer the obstinacy of that inflexible people, who, with a fortitude worthy of a better cause, seemed to despise the calamities to which their erroneous doctrine exposed them. The face of things changed, however, to their advantage toward the commencement of this century; and their affairs wore a more prosperous aspect under the protection of the emperor Nicephorus, who favoured them in a particular manner, and restored to them their civil privileges, as well as their religious liberty. of short duration; it was a transient scene that III. Their tranquillity, however, was but was soon to be succeeded by yet more dreadful sufferings than they had hitherto experienced. The cruel rage of persecution, which had for some years been suspended, broke forth with redoubled violence under the reigns of Michael Curopalates, and Leo the Armenian, who caused the strictest search to be made after the Paulicians in all the provinces of the Grecian empire, and inflicted capital punishment bosom of the church. This rigorous decree upon such of them as refused to return to the turned the afflictions of the Paulicians, who dwelt in Armenia, into vengeance, and drove them into the most desperate measures. They massacred Thomas, bishop of New Cæsarea, and also the magistrates and judges whom the emperors had established in Armenia: and, *Nouveaux Memoires de la Compagnie de Jesus dans le Levant, tom. iv. p. 283, 284.-Le Grand, Dissert. iv.-Lobo, Voyage Historique de l'Abyssinie, tom. ii. p. 18. † Photius, lib. i. contra Manichæos, p. 74, in B Wolfin Anecdotis Græcis, tom. i. See Georg. Cedrenus, Compend. I istoriar. tom i after avenging themselves thus cruelly, they || Bulgarians their pestilential doctrines, which took refuge in the countries that were governed were received with docility, and took root by the Saracens, and thence infested the speedily, as might naturally be expected, neighbouring states of Greece with perpetual among a barbarous people, recently converted incursions.* After these reciprocal acts of to the Christian faith.* cruelty and vengeance, the Paulicians, as it would seem, enjoyed an interval of tranquillity, and returned to their habitations in the Grecian provinces. IV. But the most dreadful scene of persecution that was exhibited against these wretched heretics, arose from the furious and inconsiderate zeal of the empress Theodora. This impetuous woman, who was regent of the empire during the minority of her son, issued out a decree, which placed the Paulicians in the perplexing alternative either of abandoning their principles, or of perishing by fire and sword. The decree was severe; but the cruelty with which it was put in execution by those who were sent into Armenia for that purpose, was horrible beyond expression; for these ministers of wrath, after confiscating the goods of above a hundred thousand of that miserable people, put their possessors to death in the most barbarous manner, and made them expire slowly in a variety of the most exquisite tortures. Such as escaped destruction fled for protection and refuge to the Saracens, who received them with compassion and humanity, and permitted them to build a city for their residence, which was called Tibrica. Upon this they entered into a league with the Saracens; and, choosing for their chief an officer of the greatest resolution and valour, whose name was Carbeas, they declared against the Greeks a war which was carried on with the utmost vehemence and fury. This war continued during the whole century; the victory seemed often doubtful, but the slaughter was terrible, and the numbers that perished on both sides prodigious. Many of the Grecian provinces felt, in a more particular manner, the dire effects of this cruel contest, and exhibited the most affecting scenes of desolation and misery. During these commotions, some Paulicians, toward the conclusion of the century, spread abroad among the * Photius, lib. i. contra Manichæos, p. 125.-Petri Siculi Historia Manichæorum, p. 71. Georg. Cedrenus, Compend. Hist. p. 541, edit. Paris.-Zonoras, Annal. lib. xvi. The principal authors who have given accounts of the Paulicians are Photius, lib. i. contra Manichæos, and Petrus Siculus, whose history of the Manichæans Matth. Raderus published in Greek and Latin in 1604. By the account of Petrus Siculus that is given by himself, we learn that, in 870, under the reign of Basilius the Macedonian, he was sent ambassador to the Paulicians at Tibrica, to treat with them for the exchange of prisoners, and lived among them during the space of nine months; this is sufficient to give us a high idea of the power and prosperity of the Paulicians at that time. It is from this eminent writer that Cedrenus seems to have taken what he has advanced in his Compend. Histor. p. 431. What we learn concerning the Paulicians from the more modern writers, (such as Bayle, in his Dictionary, and B. Jo. Christ. Wolfius, in his Manichæismus ante Manichæos, p. 247,) seems to be derived from Bossuet's Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, tom. ii. p. 129. B. this authority is highly excep tionable; for Bossuet did not consult the true sources of knowledge upon this point; and, what is still worse, the spirit of party seems to have led him into voluntary errors. VOL. I.-30 V. The Greeks treated the Paulicians, of whom we have now been speaking, as Mani chæans; though, if we may credit the testimony of Photius, the Paulicians expressed the utmost abhorrence of Manes and his doctrine. Most evident it is, that they were not altoge ther Manichæans, though they embraced some opinions that resembled certain tenets of that abominable sect. They had not, like the Manichæans, an ecclesiastical government administered by bishops, priests, and deacons: they had no sacred order of men distinguished by their manner of life, their habit, or any other circumstance from the rest of the assembly; nor had councils, synods, or the like institutions, any place in their religious polity. They had certain doctors whom they called Synecdemi, i. e. companions in the journey of life, and also Notarii. Among these, there reigned a perfect equality; and they had no peculia. rites or privileges, nor any external mark of dignity to distinguish them from the people. The only singularity that attended their promotion to the doctorial rank was, that they changed their lay-names for Scripture ones, as if there had been something peculiarly venerable in the names of the holy men, whose lives and actions are recorded in the sacred writings. They received all the books of the New Testament, except the two Epistles of St. Peter, which they rejected for reasons unknown to us; and their copies of the Gospel were exactly the same with those used by all other Christians, without the least interpolation of the sacred text; in which respect also they differed considerably from the Manichæans. They moreover recommended to the people without exception, with the most affecting and ardent zeal, the constant and assiduous perusal of the Scriptures, and expressed the utmost indignation against the Greeks, who allowed to priests alone an access to these sacred fountains of divine knowledge.|| In explaining, however, the doctrines of the Gospel, they often departed from the literal sense and the natural signification of the words, and interpreted them in a forced and allegorical manner, when they opposed their favourite opinions and tenets; and such more especially were the delusive and erroneous ex plications which they gave of what is said con *It is not improbable that there are yet, in Thrace and Bulgaria, Paulicians, or Paulians as they are called by some. It appears at least certain, that in the seventeenth century some of that sect still subsisted, and dwelt at Nicopolis, as we learn from the testimony of Urb. Cerri, who tells us, it. his Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, that Peter Deodati, archbishop of Sophia, caused them to aban don their errors, and return to the Catholic faith: but whether the latter part of the account be true of false, is more than we shall pretend to determine. † Photius, lib. i. contra Manichæos, p. 17, 56, 65 Petr. Siculus, Hist. Manich. p. 43. Photius, 1. c. p. 31, 32.-Petr. Sicul. p. 44- Ce drenus, I. c. p. 431. Photius, p. 11.-Petr. Sicul. p. 19. Photius, p. 101.-Petr. Sicul. p. 57. T Fhotius, p. 12. cerning the institutions of baptism and the || only fell into the sentiments of the ValentiLord's Supper, and the divine authority of thenians, and held, that Christ passed through Old Testament, all which they obstinately rejected. Beside the books of the New Testament, they treated with a particular veneration certain epistles of Sergius, the most eminent and illustrious doctor of their sect. 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, ac- tree: and hence naturally arose that treatment cording to the Paulician doctrine, the evil of the cross, of which the Greeks accused principle was engendered by darkness and them. 5. "They rejected, after the example fire; whence it plainly follows that he was "of the greatest part of the Gnostics, the neither self-originated, nor eternal.* 2. "They "books of the Old Testament, and looked "treated contemptuously the Virgin Mary;" || "upon the writers of that sacred history as inthat is to say, according to the manner of "spired by the Creator of this world, and not speaking usual among the Greeks, they re- by the Supreme God." 6. "They entirely fused to adore and worship her. They main- "excluded presbyters and lay-elders from the tained, indeed, that Christ was the son of "administration of the church." By this, Mary, and was born of her (although they however, no more can be meant, than that maintained, as appears from the express testi- they refused to call their doctors by the name mony of their adversaries, that the divine Sa- of presbyters, a name which had its origin viour brought with him from heaven his hu- among the Jews, and was peculiar to that odiman nature, and that Mary, after the birth of ous people, who persecuted Jesus Christ, and Christ, had other children by Joseph;) they attempted, as the Paulicians speak, to put him to death.† *The Greeks do not charge the Paulicians with any error concerning baptism; it is, however, certain, that the accounts of that sacred institution, which are given in Scripture, were allegorically explained by this extravagant sect; and Photius, in his first book against the Manichæans, expressly asserts that the Paulicians treated baptism as a mere allegorical ceremony, and by the baptismal water understood the Gospel. * 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 origin, considered eternal matter as the seat and source of ali evil; but they believed, at the same time, like many of the Gnostics, that this matter, endued from all eternity with life and motion, had produced an active principle, which was the fountain of vice, misery, and discarder. This principle, according to them, is the author of all material substances, while God is the Creator and Father of spirits. 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 Sicu points. 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 per. very numerous and diversified; and, though perse-spicuous and distinct. The explanatory remarks cuted and oppressed from age to age in the most rigorous mer by many emperors, they could never Je vite, pred 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. 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 Scy thia, lived under the spiritual jurisdiction of bishops who were sent among them by the Nestorian pontiff.* Concerning the Prosperous Events which hap pened to the Church during this Century. I. THE deplorable state of Christianity in this century, arising partly from that astonishing ignorance that gave a loose rein both to superstition and immorality, and partly from an unhappy concurrence of causes of another kind, is unanimously lamented by the various III. If we turn our eyes to the western writers, who have transmitted to us the his-world, we shall find the Gospel making its tory of these miserable times. Yet, amidst way with more or less rapidity among the all this darkness, some gleams of light were most rude and uncivilized nations. The faperceived from time to time, and several oc- mous arch-pirate Rollo, son of a Norwegian currences happened, which deserve a place in count, being banished from his native land,f the prosperous annals of the church. The had, in the preceding century, put himself at Nestorians in Chaldæa extended their spiritual the head of a resolute band of Normans, and conquests beyond mount Imaus, and intro- seized one of the maratime provinces of France, duced the Christian religion into Tartary, whence he infested the neighbouring country (properly so called,) whose inhabitants had with perpetual incursions and depredations. hitherto lived in their natural state of igno- In 912, this valiant chief, with his whole army, rance and ferocity, uncivilized and savage. embraced the Christian faith, on the following The same successful missionaries spread, by occasion. Charles the Simple, who wanted degrees, the knowledge of the Gospel among both resolution and power to drive this warlike that most powerful nation of the Turks, or and intrepid invader out of his dominions, was Tartars, which went by the name of Karit, obliged to have recourse to negotiation. He and bordered on Kathay, or the northern part accordingly offered to make over to Rollo a of China. The laborious industry of this considerable part of his territories, on condisect, and their zeal for the propagation of the tion that the latter would consent to a peace, Christian faith, deserve, no doubt, the highest espouse his daughter Gisela, and embrace encomiums; it must, however, be acknow- Christianity. These terms were accepted by ledged, that the doctrine and worship, which || Rollo without the least hesitation; and his they introduced among these barbarians, were army, following the example of their leader, far from being, in all respects, conformable to professed a religion of which they were totally the true spirit and genius of the Christian re- ignorant.§ These Norman pirates, as appears ligion. 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 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 baptisin, 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 late learned Sigefred Bayer, in his Preface design to give the world an accurate account of to the Museum Sinicum, p. 145, informed us of his 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 em. ployed to obtain a peace with Rollo. § Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. i. p. 296 - Danis Hist. de France. tom. ii. p. 587. * was from this Rollo, who received at his bap-|| we have, at least, no account of any compul. sion or violence being employed in their conversion;* and this is the true date of the entire establishment of Christianity among that peo ple. 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 me mory of Wlodomir, whom they represented as absolutely unworthy of saintly honours.† VI. The Hungarians and Avari had receiv ed some faint notions of Christianity under th reign of Charlemagne, in consequence of the measures that had been taken by that zealous prince for the propagation of the Gospel.These notions, however, were soon and easily extinguished by various circumstances, which took their rise from the death of Charlemagne: and it was not before the century of which we now write that the Christian religion obtained a fixed settlement among these warlike nations. Toward the middle of this century, Bulosudes and Gyula or Gylas, two Turkish chiefs, whose governments lay upon the banks of the Danube,§ made public profession of Christianity, and were baptized at Constanti nople. The former apostatized soon after to the religion of his ancestors, while the latter not only persevered steadfastly in his new profession, but also showed the most zealous con⚫ cern for the conversion of his subjects, who, in consequence of his express order, were in structed in the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel by Hierotheus, a learned prelate, by whom he had been accompanied in his journey to Constantinople. Sarolta, the daughter of Gylas, was afterwards given in marriage to Geysa, the chief of the Hungarian nation, whom she persuaded to embrace the divine religion in which she had been educated. The faith, however, of this new convert was feeble 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 accordingly baptized, in 987, assuming on that occasion 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. i cap. i. p. 8.-Henr. Canisii Lectiones Antiquæ, tom. inari. p. 41.-Solignac, Hist. de Pologne, tom. i. 3. 71. subjects, almost without exception, to abandon the wretched superstition of their idolt *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. Ca. ronic. 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, a this time, known to the Grecians by the name of Turks. |