assembled clergy pointed out various works of || political plans we have no concern on this octhe new philosophers, as objects of condemna- casion: it is only requisite that we should take tion,* and called for the exertion of all the notice of his regulations in the affairs of the powers of government in the defence and sup-church. He would not, he said, impeach the port of religion, morality, and good order. An established doctrines; but he had a strong inassembly of bishops, in 1772, renewed the at- clination to abridge the papal power in his dotack upon the new philosophy; but their ful- minions; and, with him, an inclination was minations were ineffective; and the contagion soon converted into an act. Pius, being accontinued to spread. quainted with the freedom of Joseph's sentiments, apprehended an attack from that enterprising innovator; and his fears were not visionary; for the emperor, in 1781, began with imposing restrictions upon the operation of bulls and rescripts sent from Rome. This ordinance was followed by an exemption of monasteries from all obedience to the chiefs of the different orders at Rome; a measure which the partisans of the pope, as might be expected, reprobated in warm terms. The generals of the orders desired the subalterns to maintain with spirit the constitutions of their establishments; but they were overawed into submission by the firmness of the emperor, who also released all the colleges of missionaries from their dependance on the papal court.. He farther displeased the pontiff by ordering that no money should be sent into foreign countries for masses; that no dignity should be solicited at Romne without his permission; that pilgrimages should be discontinued; and that the number of images and ornaments in churches should be diminished. The disgust felt by Pius at this conduct, was not allayed by the liberal edict of Joseph,* granting full toleration to all the protestants in his dominions, as well as to all members of the Greek church; and the dissolution of a great number of monasteries, with the conversion of the buildings into colleges, hospitals, or barracks, increased the indignation of the vicar of St. Peter.†

Louis XVI., who had a stronger sense of religion than his predecessor, lamented the prevalence of scepticism: yet he sometimes gave his confidence to men who were known to be infidels. Alarmed at the ministerial influence of Turgot, the clergy, in a council which they held in the year 1775, agreed to such a remonstrance as the danger of the church seemed to require. They represented to the young monarch, in strong terms, the alarming progress of infidelity and atheism, the illegal boldness of the protestants, (who had dared even to erect churches,) the flagrant licentiousness of the press, and the prevalence of a restless and inquisitive spirit, which threatened to unhinge society. Louis promised to attend to these complaints; but he did not take any measures of remedial efficacy. When he was influenced by free-thinking ministers, he was taught to believe that it was not necessary to interfere; and, when he was under other guides, he was too irresolute to act with vigour. To govern a nation so impetuous and volatile as the French, at a time when freedom of thought|| began to prevail, a prince of more energetic character was requisite. Sometimes, indeed, he was peremptory; but he was not consistently firm or steadily resolute. He acquiesced in measures which in his heart he disapproved; and he neglected the enforcement of those which he conceived to be just, expedient, and salutary. Under his sway, infidelity and faction alarmingly gained ground; and by assisting the American colonists, he increased the agitations of his realm.

Even in Spain and Portugal, though in a much less degree than in France, freedom of thought, in the affairs of religion, began to diffuse itself among the higher and middle classes. The vigilance of the government, however, prevented it from being dangerous. In the extensive territories of the house of Austria, a similar freedom was repressed by the spirit of Maria Theresa, whose bigotry, at the same time, prompted her to infringe the rights of her protestant subjects. Her son, the emperor Joseph, was himself a free-thinker, while he professed an adherence to the doctrines of the Romish church. This prince might justly be called the imperial projector. Many of his whims, like those of the ingenious but profligate duke of Buckingham, "died in thinking:" others were matured into schemes. With his

*These were, among other publications, Christianity Unveiled, God and Men, the System of Nature, Sacred Contagion, and Hell Destroyed; which the parliament ordered to be publicly committed to the flames.

"Under the virtuous Theresa," the protestants of Hungary (says Dr. Townson) "were not less vexed than under the profligate prince, who was taught, that his deviations from virtue might be made up for by zeal to the true church."

VOL. II.-48

Thus harassed and (as he thought) insulted, Pius resolved to visit the emperor, who, among other demands, had insisted upon presenting, in future, to all vacant bishoprics and benefices in the Milanese and Mantuan territories. The pope remonstrated against this profane encroachment upon his supposed right of patronage; but he was persuaded by some of his counsellors to promise acquiescence in this point, if Joseph would engage to desist from his career of reform. This was an engagement which none who knew that potentate could expect from him; and, with regard to the intended visit, he declared that it would be wholly fruitless, although, in a private letter to Pius, he had hinted that all disputes might be better accommodated in such a way than by mere correspondence. His holiness, to the surprise of all, repaired to Vienna, in the hope of warding off a storm which blew with increasing violence. Joseph, in one of his interviews with his spiritual father, claimed the right of altering the ecclesiastical government in his own territories, while he suffered the catholic doctrines to remain unimpaired. The pontiff, finding expostulation useless, returned to Rome, and suffered the storm to

*Promulgated on the 13th of October, 1781.

Memoires Hist. et Philos. sur Pie VI. chap. xi.~ Coxe's Hist. of the House of Austria, vol. ii chap ziz

rage. He probably thought, that Joseph was little better than a heretic, however he might pretend to doctrinal purity; and, on the other hand, the emperor imputed to the pope the narrowness of bigotry, and a want of philosophic liberality of sentiment.

The continuance of Joseph's reformative measures no longer surprised the pope, who had now witnessed the inflexibility of that prince's character. The see of Rome lost the presentation to bishoprics in Lombardy and other Austrian dependencies: its nuncios were deprived of their power and jurisdiction in Germany; and, by these and other attacks, the lustre of the papacy was visibly eclipsed.

nue.

| These incidents and transactions occurred at different times: but they are here mentioned together, to preserve a continuity of subject. They tend to show the reduced state of the papacy at the period in question: but it may be observed, that, for its total extinction, Europe was not then prepared.

The pope could only resist these assaults by remonstrances, to which the reforming courts paid no regard. He was fully sensible of the decline of his influence, but concealed his chagrin under the appearance of composure. With the pomp of ceremony, and with ritual formalities, he amused himself and his people, while his authority was exposed to rude shocks. He also attended to the improvement of the museum, which had been formed at Rome by Benedict XIV., and which Ganganelli had considerably augmented.

The catholic princes, in general, not only annihilated, or materially reduced, the papal

Other catholic sovereigns, even those who had acquired the reputation of piety, did not scruple to assail that fabric which was thus weakened. Unfortunately for the cause of the рарасу, there seemed to be a general disposition, during the pontificate of Pius, to diminish| the authority of the see over which he presid-authority over their subjects, but suffered pubed. The court of Madrid assumed a greater lic opinion so far to operate, as to check the degree of religious freedom than it had been arbitrary use of their own authority: and the accustomed to exercise; claimed rights nearly protestant governments also relaxed, in some equal to those which the Gallican church had degree, the rigours of power. Much, howlong maintained; reduced the inquisition to a ever, remained to be done for the purposes of state of passive subserviency; and made a far-popular benefit; for, even in Great Britain, the ther diminution of the papal demands of reve- land of boasted freedom, the government was Even the bigoted court of Lisbon enter- rather a combination of monarchy and aristotained ideas of reform. The queen was a de-cracy, than a proper mixture of those two kinds vout catholic, superstitiously faithful to the doc- of polity with democracy. trines and attached to the ceremonies of pope- While almost every nation in Europe seemry: but she suffered her son, the prince of ed to be gradually advancing to a melioration Brazil, to lead her into anti-papal measures. of its government, and to a greater freedom of Some publications which had been introduced inquiry, the French unfortunately took the by the emperor into the schools at Vienna, lead, and obscured the rising prospect by sensewere translated into the language of Portugal, less precipitancy and by absurd innovations. and ordered to be studied, for the promotion of They overturned former establishments before free inquiry, in several new seminaries founded they had concerted or devised rational plans in that realm. Questions tending to weaken of substitution: they indulged in all the wildthe fabric of papal supremacy, to abridge theness of theory and all the licentiousness of capower of the clerical body, and even to recommend toleration of various religions, were authoritatively proposed for discussion in the universities; and the press was permitted to aid A revolution like that which convulsed the progress of such argumentation, although || France, could not be expected to prove favour it was not allowed to impugn the peculiar able to the interests of religion. Men who doctrines of catholicism. No persons were suf- were inclined to cherish a boundless freedom fered to devote themselves to monastic confine- of opinion, and who boasted of their being ment, without the particular sanction of the wholly uninfluenced by the wisdom of former sovereign. Even after the death of the prince, times, were not likely to feel any high degree the court continued to encroach on the claims of respect for that system of religion which had of the pope and the immunities of the church. long prevailed. Not content with ridiculing The courts of Naples and Florence took greater and reprobating the Romish ritual and esta liberties in this respect than that of Lisbon. A blishment, they spoke contemptuously of al. considerable number of monasteries were sup- other creeds; and a neglect of religion became pressed by the king and the grand duke: bishop-the order of the day. The Constituent Assemrics and rich benefices were granted without bly, however, amidst all its innovations, made consulting his holiness with regard to the indivi- provision for the continuance of public worship; duals proper to occupy them; and contributions and the catholic religion was still the predoto the Roman treasury were abolished or re-minant system. The papal interest, indeed, stricted. The republic of Venice dissolved some conventual foundations, and applied their revenues to better purposes than the support of superstitious indolence. The duke of Modena put an end to the horrors of the inquisition in his dominions, and treated with less respect the general authority of the pontiff.*

Memoires sur Pie VI. chap. xviii. xix. xxii.

price. The most outrageous cruelty was mingled with their political fanaticism; and the effects were calamitous and deplorable.

was materially affected by the change of go vernment. The vote against the payment of fees to the pope, the order for the suppress.on of monasteries, the seizure of all the possessions of the church as the property of the nation, and the entire subjection of the clergy to the civil power, struck at the vitals of the court of Rome. Pius, incensed at these proceedings, seemed ready to hurl the thunderbolts of non

1

tifical vengeance upon the audacious and pro- | proposing ten metropolitan churches for the fane revolutionists; but prudence checked his whole republic, and a bishopric for each dearm. He apprehended that his menaces and partment; recommending a popular election edicts would be disregarded, and might only both of prelates and parochial ministers; dis serve to provoke embittered hostilities. In the owning the authority of apostolical vicars, or mean time, he endeavoured to secure the papal delegates, and advising the peremptory friendship of those princes whose power might rejection of all bulls or briefs from Rome, un afford him some protection amidst the revolu- less it should fully appear that they were con tionary storm. sonant with the ordinances and the spirit of the Gallican church.*

When a sufficient time had been allowed for the operation of these letters, and for the private influence of clerical exhortations, an ecclesiastical council met in the French metropolis, consisting of thirty-eight prelates, and fifty-three representatives of the inferior cler

The bishops and priests, who acted under the new constitution of France, were not regarded as true members of the Romish church, by the clergy of the old school, however observant they might be of the catholic creed. The pope sent a brief to the king, condemning the new arrangements; but Louis was constrained to acquiesce in these and other inno-gy. vations. Only three of the former bishops retained their stations: all the other prelates became non-jurors, and, with the majority of parochial ministers, were deprived of their preferments. The legislative assembly, affecting to be alarmed at the intrigues of the clerical non-jurors, menaced them with imprisonment or exile. Many of their number emigrated in || the sequel; and many were assassinated by the populace.

Under the sway of the democratic convention, so little attention was paid to religion, that it seemed to be in danger of being wholly absorbed by worldly politics. The assembly did not, indeed, expressly vote for its extinction in the new republic; but contented itself with encouraging the surrender of letters of priesthood, and the open renunciation of all religious sentiments. At length, however, Robespierre pretended to be shocked at the growing spirit of atheism, and moved for the promulgation of a decree, favourable to the cause of religion. By this ordinance, a periodical festival was instituted in honour of the Creator of the world, or the Supreme Being; the propriety of public worship was allowed; and the immortality of the soul was recommended to universal belief. The clergy of the old school, however, were still harassed, and in danger of exile or confinement, until the legislature, in the year 1797, released them from the oaths with which their consciences were offended, and merely required them to promise submission to the government. Two years before this concession was obtained, five bishops had ventured to address a circular letter to the clergy; in which they affirmed, that religion, in the altered government of their country, had no longer a political foundation; that the connexion was dissolved between the church and the state; that the former still expocted justice and protection from the latter; but, being left to itself, was obliged to take measures for the establishment of doctrinal uniformity and general regularity of discipline. They recognized the pope as the head of the church, and acknowledged the doctrines of catholicism, as interpreted and explained by Bossuet, the celebrated bishop of Meaux.*

Before the end of the same year, another letter was addressed to the friends of the church,

See Mosheim's History, cent. xvii. sect. ii. part . chap. 1.

The members agreed to a profession of faith, founded on the creed promulgated, in 1560, by pope Pius IV.; but they were not so bigoted to this faith, as to give license or encouragement to the perpetration of any acts of violence under the pretence of defending it. However the church might be called militant, "it knew and authorized no other arms (they said) than prayer and the word of God." The country, they added, might be lawfully defended by the people, with the arm of flesh; and the clergy were desired to inculcate the propriety and justice of such patriotic hostilities: but the church ought only to defend itself by spiritual arms. Episcopacy was declared to be essential to the proper government of the church; but royalty, of which that system was the usual accompaniment among Christian nations, did not meet with so favourable a testimony; for it was enjoined that royalty should be the object of determined hatred, because a proper knowledge of national interest strongly condemned that form of government; and it was affirmed, that the exaction of an oath, against the revival of such an obnoxious system in France, was by no means repugnant to the laws of the Gospel.§

The proceedings of this assembly were closed by an order for the communication of its decrees to the pope, who was, at the same time, earnestly solicited to convoke a general council. But his holiness declined a compliance with this request, being probably of opinion that the political convulsions of the times precluded ecclesiastical accommodation and religious union.

Amidst these arrangements, the pontiff remained at Rome, in a state of suspense and anxiety. He had already surrendered three provinces to French invaders; and he had not power to defend the rest of his territories. A republic being formed at Rome, in the year 1798, he retired into Tuscany; and, when that duchy was also revolutionized, he was sent as a prisoner of war into Dauphine. Harassed, insulted, and oppressed, he died at Briancon,[] in the eighty-second year of his age.

*Lettre Encyclique de plusieurs Eveques de France, a leurs Freres, et aux Eglises vacantes, 1795. † On the 15th of August, 1797.

See Mosheim, cent. xvi. sect. iii. part i. chap. i. § Canons et Decrets du Concile national de France, tenu a Paris, en l'An de l'Ere Chretienne 1797; mis en ordre par les Eveques reunis a Paris.

In April, 1799

CHAPTER II.

History of the Greek Church, and of the Chris

tian Communities in Asia and Africa.

Ir we did not know that trifles (such is the weakness of man!) frequently produo. serious animosities and permanent divisions, we might be surprised at the long dissension between the Greek and Romish churches. At the time of their separation, both communities agreed in the essentials of Christianity; and they ought to have contented themselves with that agreement, without expecting their fellow-Christians to concur with them in every trivia notion or fantastic opinion, in every idle ceremony, or in all circumstances of exterior worship. But, forgetting the obligations of bro-|| therly love, they continued at variance for ages; and they are still sufficiently estranged from each other, to render the idea of a union visionary and hopeless.

ber of proselytes to the papal church became considerable. The Mainotes, in the Morea, withstood the arts of the Romish missionaries more vigorously, even to the end of the century, than the generality of the Greeks. They assured the intruders, that they were strongly attached to the system of their own church, as opposed to that of the Romanists, whose head they considered as an unchristian schismatic, for having corrupted the purity of the true faith. They particularly condemned the prohibition of the marriage of priests, and ridiculed the issuing of bulls for the pretended rescue of souls from purgatory. They then had only one bishop; and he, like the priests, had no regular allowance, but received occasional contributions for particular masses, and cultivated the soil, or performed other labours, to procure the necessaries of life. The ecclesiastics, in general, led exemplary lives, and thus deserved that respect with which the laity treated them; and such was their spirit, that they were the first to take arms in defence of their country.*

The schism of which we have spoken was very prevalent in Syria. At Aleppo, the northern capital of that province, the Christian church, about the middle of the century, was in a state of deplorable division.

The Greek church, at the beginning of the century, extended from the Red Sea to the Frozen Ocean, and from the Adriatic to the Caspian. The patriarch of Constantinople was, nominally, the head of this church; but his authority was not co-extensive with the similarity of doctrine. He held a monthly synod in that city, with the metropolitans of Antioch and Jerusalem, and twelve other prelates. In these councils he had no decisive authority: the influence of the majority, the intrigues of the more artful members, and sometimes reason or argument, decided the questions. He did not retain that effective supremacy which some of his predecessors enjoyed over the patriarchs of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine: in the extensive regions subject to the Russian despot, he had not even the shadow of power; and, between the eastern boundaries of Asia Minor and the Caspian, his jurisdic-sation from the rigours of abstinence. Like tion was not honoured with regard or acquiescence. Living also under the government of an infidel prince, to whom every form of Christianity was odious, he was, in fact, a slave to an arbitrary barbarian.

In the provinces of European Turkey, the members of the Greek church were, and are still, very numerous, notwithstanding the discouragement given to population by the tyranny of the government. Almost every successive Grand Seignior thought it his duty to oppress them, that he might evince his zeal as a defender of the Moslem faith. Mustafa III. was more lenient to them than many of his predecessors; but, even under his administration, they were insulted and plundered by his Turkish subjects, and maltreated in every mode of capricious tyranny. Their hierarchy, however, was suffered to subsist; and they were allowed to transmit to their posterity their favourite doctrines.

Frequent attempts were made by the zealous catholics, in the course of the century, to draw the Greeks into the Romish communion, not by concessions on the part of the former, but by derelictions of opinion on the part of the latter. In consequence of these endeavours, a schism was maintained in various parts of Greece and Asia Minor, and the num

The orthodox Greeks, or those who adhered to the old system, were less numerous than the followers of the Latin church; but, having greater interest at the Porte, they kept the bishopric in their hands. They were more rigid in the observance of fasts than the opposite party: yet the latter attended more to that point of supposed duty than the generality of Roman catholics. The Armenians were still more scrupulous in this respect; and some, it is said, would rather perish for want of proper sustenance during illness, than solicit a dispen

the Greeks, they were divided into orthodox and schismatic Christians. The advantage of number was on the side of the former; but the others had the superiority in point of opulence. The Maronites continued to be attached to the Romish church, retaining, however, some doctrinal and ritual differences. They had a higher opinion of the sanctity or the convenience of a monastic life than the other Christians of Aleppo; but they had no monasteries in that city. The priests of these three communities were in general so poor, that those who had families were obliged to have recourse to some branch of temporal business for the augmentation of their income.†

The state of the Greek church, in point of doctrine and practice, may be thus briefly exhibited. Its chief sacraments are baptism and the Lord's supper. To the former, which is deemed necessary to salvation, is annexed the chrism, or unction; and the child is dipped under water three times, in allusion to the Trinity. In the eucharist, three liturgies are used; but the ordinary one is that of St. Chry sostom. This sacrament is administered, even

* Voyage de Dimo et Nicolo Stephanopoli en Grece, pendant les Annees 1797 et 1798; chap. xxxix.

† Natural History of Aleppo, by Alexander Russell. M. D. vol. ii, chap. ii.

to the laity, in both kinds; and children are || considerable privileges. Among these we may allowed to receive it. Transubstantiation is mention an exemption from taxes; and we may not a decided doctrine in this church. It is add, that ecclesiastics are so far favoured in a apparently maintained in one of the public judicial process, as not to be amenable before confessions of faith; but the words used in the a temporal judge, unless commissaries cf their service itself seem merely to imply, that the own order be assessors at the trial. Before the supposed change is an act of the mind, not a year 1791, the commandant or chief magisphysical conversion of the sacramental ele-trate of a district used to send to the bishop, ments into the body and blood of Christ.

The Romish notion of purgatory is denied by the votaries of this church: but they offer up prayers for those who have been removed from the world, and therefore seem to think that the soul has some place of residence from the day of death to the final judgment. They invoke a multitude of saints, and even burn Incense to them. Next to Christ, the Virgin Mary and the twelve apostles are particularly honoured. Works of supererogation are disallowed. Faith and good works united are deemed requisite to produce justification.

Confession is practised, but not considered as a sacrament. It is enjoined four times in the year: but, in general, it is performed only once in that time. The penitents, however, are not required, as in the church of Rome, to mike a full dis. losure of all heir sins, cr to give a minute detail of circumstances.

Marriage is regarded as a very important object, yet not as an indissoluble obligation. Three offices or services are used in its celebration; namely, that of betrothing, crowning the individuals, and dissolving the crowns. All the clergy, except bishops and monks, are allowed to enter into this union. Beyond a third time, all renewals of marriage are forbid- || den; and even second marriages are discountenanced. No solemnizations of matrimony are permitted during the fasts, which are usually kept with great strictness.

on every new occasion, for commissaries; but, since that time, clerical deputies have been regularly and permanently appointed for that function, by a general order of the holy synod.*

Under this synod, in the reign of Catharine II., were thirty-one eparchies, or spiritual governments. That council in 1789, was composed of two metropolitans, three archbishops, two bishops, a regular and a secular proto-pope, or chief priest, an archimandrite, or abbot, and some inferior officers. To each eparchy belonged a consistory, formed of an archimandrite, some priors, and secular clergy. The titles of metropolitan and archbishop were not attached to a particular see, but were distinctions merely personal.

The roskolniki, or schismatics, as those were called who objected to the prevailing system, which hey sɛ, id, int olved various corrup' ions of the doctrine and discipline of the ancient Greek church, were not only discountenanced, but were sometimes cruelly oppressed, before the time of Catharine. Many of them were put to death by the unchristian barbarity of the clergy; and it is particularly recorded, that, in the year 1722, whole families of those unfortunate sectaries, unwilling to submit to the emperor's demand of a renunciation of their opinions, enclosed themselves in barns, and perished in the flames kindled by their own hands. At the time of this persecution the chief ecclesiastical adviser of Peter, was TheoThe ecclesiastical body consists of five or- phanes, bishop of Pleskoff, afterwards archbiders, if readers and sub-deacons be reckoned shop of Novogorod, whose liberality of mind, among the number: the others are, deacons, however, must have rendered him averse to the presbyters, and bishops. The ordination of the murder of reputed heretics. This prelate dishighest class is a very impressive ceremony. It tinguished himself by writing against the multerminates with a prayer from the officiating tiplication of ceremonies, the practice of idolarchbishop, that Christ will render the new pre-atry, the rigours of monastic seclusion, and the late an imitator of himself, the true shepherd; that he will make him a teacher of infants, a leader of the blind, a light to those who walk in darkness; that he may shine in the world, and at last receive the great reward prepared for those who boldly contend in the cause of the Gospel, and persevere in the service of God.

Although the head of this church has lost his controlling authority over the ecclesiastical establishment of Russia, he still has the gratification of reflecting, that the doctrinal prevalence of the system which he superintends, includes that great empire. The Russian clergy had long enjoyed important immunities; and, although these were in some measure abridged by Peter the Great, the order still can boast of

The prayer is, that God the Father would send down his Holy Spirit to sanctify the elements, and make them the body and blood of Christ, for pardon, grace, and salvation, to all who devoutly receive

them.

†The idea of dissolving the crowns may seem ominous; but it is the ceremony which indicates that the marriage is concluded.

various absurdities of superstition; and, while he exhorted the people to be content with praying, singing psalms, and reading the Scriptures, he advised the clergy to preach sermons of practical utility, rather than of doctrinal refinement.†

This schism has continued to our times. Catharine treated the sectaries with lenity; and we do not find that they have been persecuted since her decease. Her chief attacks, in poin of persecution, were directed against the abet tors and advocates of democracy, and her son Paul, in that respect, followed her example.

The Russian plebeians and peasants are remarkable for superstition. Many absurdities are related of them in that particular: but it

*Tooke's View of the Russian Empire, vol. ii.

Historico-Geographical Description of Russia, Siberia, and Great Tartary, by Philip John voi Strah lenberg, chap. viii.-The Catechism prepared by this prelate was stamped with the approbation of the holy synod, and published in the year 1766. A summary of Christian Divinity, compiled by Plato, archbishop of Moscow, was about the same time recommended to general use.