was lost; and they desired and attempted its restoration. But very few of them were competent to so great an undertaking, as that of reforming the prevailing religion; for most of them were deficient both in talents and learning; and living in those times of ignorance, they did not understand the bible. Hence they unavoidably deviated as much from the religion of Christ, as it is exhibited in the sacred volume, as they did from the Roman religion; and at the same time were extravagant in censuring and amending it.

§ 4. Among the sects of this age, the first place is due to the Cathari, a sect which has already been mentioned. Proceeding from Bulgaria, they raised disturbance in nearly all the countries of Europe; and in all of them, if apprehended, they were miserably put to death. The religion of this party had some affinity with that anciently professed by the Gnostics and Manichæans; and hence those who held to it were generally called Manichæans, though they differed on many points from the genuine Manichæans. They all agreed in the following opinions: they believed that evil originates from matter; that the creator of this world was a different being from the supreme God; that Christ had not a real body, nor was he truly born, or crucified; that all human bodies are the work of an evil demon, and that they perish without a prospect of resuscitation; they denied that baptism and the holy supper are of any use; they enjoined an austere and rigorous mode of living, abstinence from flesh and all animal substances, from wine, and matrimony; they despised the books of the Old Testament, and reverenced only the New Testament, especially the four Gospels; and to pass over several things, they believed that rational souls, by a lamentable misfortune, are inclosed in these bodies, and must be liberated from them by continence, fasting, coarse fare, and other mortifications".

4 See the compilations of Car. Plessis d'Argentre, in his Collectio judiciorum de noris erroribus, tom. i. to which, however, much more might be added respecting this universally persecuted and exterminated set of men. [For the history of this sect in the preceding century, see p. 392, &c. Tr.]

5 Besides the writers hereafter quoted, see a Disputatio inter Catholicum et Pa terinum; published by Edm. Martene, Thesaur. Anecdotor. tom. v. p. 1703, &c. and Bonacursus, Manifestatio hæresis Catharorum; in Luc. Dachery's Spicilegium, tom. i. p. 208, &c.

§ 5. These common sentiments of them all, were explained and defined differently by their teachers; so that they were divided among themselves into sects; which, however, as they were all subject to persecution, disputed with moderation and calmness. There were two principal parties or sects among these Cathari. The one approached near to Manichæism, and held to two eternal first causes of all things, the God of light, who was the father of Jesus Christ, and the prince of darkness, by whom they supposed the visible world was created; the other party held to but one first cause, the father of Jesus Christ, and the supreme God, by whom, they affirmed, the first matter was produced; but they added to this, that the evil demon, after his revolt from God, digested and separated this matter into the four elements, so that it could be formed into a world. The former held also, that Christ, clad in celestial flesh, descended into Mary, and received nothing from her substance; while the latter believed that Christ assumed in Mary, though not from Mary, a body that was not real, but imaginary. The sect which held to two first causes, was denominated from the place where its principal bishop resided, the sect of Albano, or the Albanensians; and it was subdivided into the adherents of Balazinansa, bishop of Verona, and the adherents of John de Lugio, bishop of Bergamo. The sect which held to one first cause, was divided into the church of Bagnolo, which is a town of Provence, and the association of Concorregio, or Concorrezzo. To the church of Bagnolo, or Baiolo, belonged the community that resided in France, and bore the name of Albigensians'.

• See Bernh. Moneta's Summa adrersus Catharos et Waldenses; published by Tho. Aug. Richini, Rome, 1743. fol. with a dissertation prefixed, de Catharis, but which is of no great value. Moneta was a respectable writer for the age in which he lived. See lib. i. p. 2. 5. lib. ii. p. 247, &c. [Moneta is, in general, the best historical writer on this subject. He was of Cremona, and of the earliest Dominicans, after being long a professor at Bologna. He was still alive A. D. 1233. Schl.]

7 Raynerus Sachonus, Summa de Catharis et Leonistis; in Martenc's

Thesaurus Anecdotorum, tom. v. p. 1761. 1768. [Rayner himself lived seventeen years among the Cathari, and was a leader among them; which gives much weight to his history. Schl.] Peregrinus Priscianus in Muratori's Antiq. Ital. Medii Ari, tom. v. p. 93, where he gives a tabular view of the differences between these sects; yet he erroneously denominates those Albanenses, whom he should have called Albigenses, and who were a branch of the Baiolensians; perhaps it was a mistake of the printer. The opinions of these Baiolensians, or Bagnolensians,

§ 6. The internal arrangements of this church had many singularities, which cannot be explained in a narrow compass. The government was administered by bishops: but each of these had two vicars attached to him, one of whom was called the elder son, and the other the younger son. The other teachers or priests were called (Diaconi) ministers®. All these, but especially the bishops and their sons, were held in immense veneration. And as their moral principles were peculiarly rigid and austere, and not suitable nor tolerable to all, it was necessary to divide their people, as the Manichæan congregations were anciently divided, into two classes, the comforted (consolati), and the associated, or confederated (fœderati). The former exhibited a great show of piety, and led in celibacy a life of peculiar rigour, and destitute of all common gratifications and conveniences. The latter, except observing a few rules, lived in the manner of other people; but they entered into a covenant, which, in Italian, was called convenenza, that before they died, or at least in their last sickness, they would enter farther into the church and would receive the consolation, which was their term for initiation '.

may also be well learned from the Codex Inquisitorius, published by Phil. Limborch, with his Historia Inquisitionis.

But what Limborch has himself written concerning the opinions of the Albigensians, (Historia Inquis. lib. i. cap. viii. p. 30, &c.) is inaccurate, and not free from errors. I have spent much time in examining these sects, and discriminating among them; a subject which the partialities of authors, and other causes, have greatly obscured. But there is not room here to enlarge. [According to a note of Joh. Conr. Fuesslin, in his Kirchen und Ketzerhistorie der mittlern Zeit, vol. i. p. 128, (whose correctness, however, I cannot judge of,) the Albigensians here mentioned, must not be confounded with the Albigensians that appeared in Languedoc; for they lived at Alby, in Montferrat. Schl. According to Rayner, there were sixteen communities, or associations of Cathari ; namely, the Albanensians, or those of Donnezacho, the members of which were at Verona and in other parts of

Lombardy, about 500 in all; those of Concorrezzo, spread over all Lombardy, and more than 1500 in number; those of Basolo, at Mantua, Brescia, Bergamo, and in Milan; others at Vicenza, or in the margravate; in the territory of Florence; in the valley of Spoleto; the French at Verona and in Lombardy; at Toulouse; at Carcassone; in the region of Albi; the Slavonians, the Latins at Constantinople; the Greeks there; those at Philadelphia in Romania; the Burgalic and the Duguntic. In the whole world, there were at that time, not quite 4000 Cathari. See Schroeckh's Kirchengesch. vol. xxix. p. 484. Tr.]

8 See Rayneri Sachoni, Summa de Catharis, p. 1766, &c.

9 These statements may be substantiated from the writers that have been mentioned, especially from the Codex Inquisit. Tolosana, and others. [For a more full account of the Cathari, see Schroeckh, Kirchengesch, vol. xxix. p. 477, &c. Tr.]

§ 7. Of far better character than these, was the presbyter Peter de Bruys; who, about the year 1110, attempted a restoration of true religion in Languedoc and Provence, provinces of France; and having drawn many to follow him, after journeying and labouring for twenty years, was burnt by the enraged populace at St. Giles, A. D. 1130. The whole system of doctrines inculcated by this Peter upon his followers, who, from him, were called Petrobrussians, is not known; yet there are five of his opinions that have reached us: I. That persons ought not to be baptized until they come to the use of reason. II. That it is not proper to build churches; and that such as are built should be pulled down. III. That the holy crosses ought to be destroyed. IV. That the body and blood of Christ are not distributed in the sacred supper, but only the signs of them. V. That the oblations, prayers, and good works of the living, do not profit the dead'.

2

§ 8. He was followed by one Henry, an Italian perhaps an eremite monk, the parent of the sect of the Henricians3. From Lausanne, a city of Switzerland, he came to Mans; and being driven from there, he travelled through Poictiers, Bourdeaux, and the adjacent regions, and at last, in the year 1147, came to Toulouse; and every where boldly declaimed against the vices of the clergy, and the defects of the prevailing religion, with the applause of the multitude. When ejected from

1 See Peter the Venerable, contra Petrobrusianos Liber; in the Bibliotheca Cluniacens. p. 1117. Jo. Mabillon, Annales Benedict. tom. vi. p. 346, &c. Jac. Basnage, Histoire des Eglises Réformées, period iv. p. 140, &c. [See also Schroeckh. Kirchengesch. tom.xxix. p. 515, &c. Almost the only source of all that is known of Peter de Bruys and his doctrine, is the epistle or tract of Peter the Venerable, abbot of Clugni, written expressly to confute the errors of Peter de Bruys, about A. D. 1141. This tract is printed in the Biblioth. Cluniacens. Paris, 1614. fol. p. 1117-1230; and in the Biblioth. max. Patrum Lugdunens. tom. xxii. p. 1033, &c. The author states and confutes, in as many chapters, the five errors mentioned by Dr. Mosheim; and he says these were the chief errors disseminated by Peter de

Bruys; though his disciple Henry advanced a great many others. Tr.]

2 [This is the conjecture of Mabillon, in his Preface to the works of St. Bernard, § 6. but Henry may have been a Swiss; as Fuessli supposes, 1. c. p. 214. Schl.]

3 [This name occurs often in a different application, denoting the adherents to the emperor Henry IV. in his contest with the popes respecting investitures. For, as is well known, the pope declared the principles of Henry in respect to investitures to be heresy; and his son, Henry V., had to abjure expressly the Henrician heresy. Thus e. g. are his adherents denominated in the Acts of the council of Quedlinburg (Quintilmoburgense), A. D. 1085; in Harzheim's Concil. Germ. tom. iii. p. 200. Schl.]

Toulouse by St. Bernard, he took to flight; but was apprehended by some bishop, brought before Eugene III., the Roman pontiff, then holding a council at Rheims, and by him committed to prison, A. D. 1148, where he soon after died. An accurate account of the doctrines of this man also, has not come down to us. We only know that he too disapproved of infant baptism, inveighed severely against the corrupt morals of the clergy, despised the festal days and the religious ceremonies, and held clandestine assemblies. Some represent him as being a disciple of Peter de Bruys; but on what authority they rely, I do not know".

§ 9. While these persons were producing excitement in France, about the year 1115, in Brabant, one Tanquelin, or Tanquelm, a man of no learning, produced very great commotions at Antwerp, and collected a very numerous party. He was either deranged, or a shameless villain, if credit is due to what his enemies say of him. For he travelled in great pomp; said he was God, or the Son of God; ordered daughters to be debauched in presence of their mothers; and the like. But these statements are not merely hard to be believed, but absolutely incredible. This Tanchelm seems to have imbibed the

4 Gesta Episcopor. Cenomanensium; in Mabillon's Analecta Veteris Evi, p. 315, &c. new ed. The epistle of Gaufrid, inserted in the close of the sixth book of Mabillon's Life of St. Bernard; in the Opp. Bernardi, tom. ii. p. 1207. Matth. Paris, Historia major, p. 71. Jo. Mabillon, Preface to the Opp. Bernardi, § 6. Annales Benedict. tom. vi. p. 346. 420. 434.

I cannot easily believe he was so: for, to mention no other argument, Peter de Bruys would not tolerate crosses; but Henry entered into a city bearing the standard of a cross in his own hand. See Mabillon, Analecta, p. 316, &c. [Peter, abbot of Clugni, however, expressly calls him an apostle of Peter de Bruys; (in the Biblioth. Cluniacens. p. 1123.) " qui duobus tantum homuncionibus Petro de Bruis et Henrico ejus pseudapostolo tam facile cessistis." Also, ibid. p. 1117, he says: "After that impious (Peter du Bruys) had been removed from one fire to

another, from this transitory to an eternal; the heir to his wickedness (heres nequitiæ ejus) Henry, with I know not what others, did not reform, but altered the diabolical doctrine; and, as I saw written in a note-book containing his own words, he published not merely five, but many errors. But as I have not yet full evidence, that he thus thought or preached, I omit to confute them :". e. the additional errors. How Henry altered or enlarged the doctrines of Peter, does not appear. He seems to have been a very popular preacher against the vices of the clergy, and the formal heartless devotion of the age. And it is probable, he dwelt more upon practical religion, than doctrinal. See Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. vol. xxix. p. 517, &c. and Neander's Heilige Bernard, p. 254, &c. Tr.]

6 The epistle of the church of Utrecht to bishop Frederic, concerning Tanchelm; in Seb. Tegnagel's Collectio