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were numerous in Syria, and in Thrace. Thrace they removed into Bulgaria and Slavonia; in which countries they afterwards had a supreme pontiff of the sect; and they continued their residence there down to the times of the council of Basil, or to the fifteenth century. From Bulgaria, they migrated to Italy; and thence spread into other countries of Europe, and gave much trouble to the Roman pontiffs."

CENTURY XI.

The Nestorians still extend Christianity in the East.-The Crusades commenced.-Dictates of Hildebrand.-Profligacy of the Monks.-Arrogance of the Pope.-Berengarius opposes Transubstantiation.-Manicheans or Paulicians migrate to the West.

"THE Hungarians, Danes, Poles, Russians, and other nations, who, in the preceding century, had received a kind of knowledge of the Christian religion, could not universally be brought, in a short time to prefer Christianity to the religions of their fathers. Therefore during the greater part of this century, their kings, with the teachers whom they drew around them, were occupied in gradually_enlightening and converting these nations. In Tartary and the adjacent regions, the activity of the Nestorians continued daily to gain over more people to the side of Christianity. And such is the mass of testimony at the present day, that we cannot doubt, but that bishops of the highest order or Metropolitans, with many inferior bishops subject to them, were established at that period in the

provinces of Cashgar, Nuacheta, Turkestan, Genda, Tangut, and others. Whence it will be manifest, that there was a vast multitude of Christians, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in these countries; which are now either devoted to Mohammedanism, or worshippers of imaginary gods. And that all these Christians followed the Nestorian creed, and were subject to the supreme pontiff of the Nestorians residing in Chaldea, is so certain, as to be beyond all controversy."

Efforts were made in this century, without much success, to convert the Prussians, and other nations in the north of Europe, that were still heathen. One Bruno, who assumed the name of Boniface, with eighteen companions, went as missionaries from Germany into Prussia; but, after some time, were all put to death by the Prussians. (A. D. 1006.)

The Saracens, in the ninth century, had seized upon Sicily, and neither the Greeks nor Latins had hitherto been able to expel them, though they had frequently attempted it. "But in this century, (A. D. 1059,) Robert Guiscard, the Norman duke of Apulia, with his brother Roger, under the authority of the Roman pontiff Nicolaus II. attacked them with great valour; nor did Roger relinquish the war, till he had gained possession of the whole island, and cleared it of the Saracens. After this great achievement, in the year 1090, Roger restored the Christian religion, now almost extinguished there by the Saracens, to its former dignity; and established bishops, founded monasteries, erected magnificent churches, and put the clergy in possession of ample revenues and honours, which they enjoy to the present time."

In this century commenced the war of the Cru

sades. For some time the plan of expelling the Mohammedans from Palestine had been in contemplation by the Roman pontiffs. Gregory VII. designed to engage personally in such a war, and for this purpose raised more than fifty thousand men; but his controversy with the emperor Henry IV. obliged him to abandon the design. The people of Europe were first roused up on this by Peter, surnamed the Hermit. He was a Frenchman of Amiens, who visited Palestine in 1093, and was greatly affected with the vexations and oppressions which the Christians residing at the holy places, suffered from the Mohammedans. Either fancying or pretending a divine influence, he travelled over Europe, calling upon princes and people to make war upon the tyrants of Palestine, and rescue from their hands the holy sepulchre. He carried with him an epistle on the subject, which he pretended came directly from heaven, addressed to all Christians. The public being thus excited, Urban II., in the year 1095, assembled a numerous council at Placentia, in which this holy war was recommended. It is said that there were present in this council, four thousand clergymen, and thirty thousand laymen, and that its sessions were held in the open air, because no church could contain them. But the business succeeded better at the council of Clermont, assembled soon after, and very numerously attended. Here a vast multitude, of all ranks and ages, moved by the tumid eloquence of Urban, were ready to engage at once in a military expedition to Palestine, for the purpose of rescuing the Holy Land from the Turks. This host seemed a very formidable army in point of numbers, but was in reality very weak and pusillanimous; "for it was composed chiefly

of monks, mechanics, farmers, persons averse from their regular occupations, spendthrifts, speculators, prostitutes, boys, girls, servants, malefactors, and the lowest dregs of the idle populace, who hoped to make their fortunes." They were called Crusaders, not only because it was their object to rescue the cross of our Lord from the Turks, but also because they carried the cross upon their banners, and wore a white, red, or green cross, made of woollen cloth, and solemnly consecrated, upon their right shoulders.

In the year 1096, credible writers inform us, that an army of eight hundred thousand persons marched, by different routes, and under different leaders, to Constantinople; that, having received instructions and aid from the Greek emperor, they might pass over into Asia. The first band of eighty thousand was led on by Peter the Hermit, girded with a rope. But this company, after committing innumerable base deeds, were nearly all destroyed by the Hungarians and Turks. Other armies of these crusaders shared no better fate, who roamed about under unskilful leaders, plundering and laying waste the country wherever they came. The Greek emperor was not a little alarmed at the approach of this great army; but his fears were dispelled when it had passed the Straits of Gallipolis, and landed in Bithynia. The crusaders first laid seige to Nice, the capital of Bithynia, which was taken in the year 1097.They then proceeded on through Asia Minor into Syria, took Antioch, Edessa, &c. and finally succeeded in reducing the city of Jerusalem under their power. Here they established the seat of a new kingdom, and Godfrey of Bouillon, who was the best general among them, and commander-in

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chief of the war, was declared the first king of Jerusalem.

By these wars, Europe was deprived of more than half its population, and immense sums of money were exported to foreign countries: and very many families previously opulent and powerful, either became extinct, or were reduced to extreme poverty; for the heads of families either mortgaged or sold their territories, possessions, and estates, in order to defray the expense of their expedition: while others imposed such intolerable burdens upon their vassals and tenants, as obliged them to abandon their houses and lands, and assume themselves the badge of the cross. A vast derangement of society, and a subversion of every thing, took place throughout Europe: not to mention the robberies, murders, and destructions of life and property, every where committed with impunity, by these soldiers of God and Jesus Christ, as they were called; and the new, and often very grievous privileges and prerogatives to which these wars gave occasion. Nevertheless, these wars served greatly to increase the power of the Roman pontiffs, and in various ways to enrich the churches and monasteries. Superstition, already extravagant, was now greatly increased among the Latins. The long list of tutelary saints, was augmented with new, and often fictitious saints, of Greek and Syrian origin; and an immense number of ridiculous relics were imported to enrich the churches and chapels. Each one brought with him from Asia, as the richest treasure, the sacred relics, which he had purchased at a high price, of the fraudulent Greeks and Syrians, which he committed to the sacred charge of