תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

XVI.

GENT the year 1594, imposed silence on the contending SECT. III. parties, promising that he himself would examine PART I. with care and diligence every thing relating to

gregation

of Aids.

this new debate, in order to decide it in such a manner as might tend to promote the cause of truth, and the peace of the church.

The con- XLI. The pontif was persuaded that these gentle, remedies would soon, remove the disease, and that, through length of time, these heats and animosities would undoubtedly subside.. But the event was far from being answerable to such pleasing hopes. The Dominicans, who had long fostered a deep-rooted and invincible hatred against the Jesuits, having now a favourable opportunity of venting their indignation exhausted their furious zeal against the doctrine of Molina, notwithstanding the pacific orders of the papal edict. They fatigued incessantly the Spanish monarch, Philip II. and the Roman pontif, Clement VIII. with their importunate clamours, until at length the latter found himself under a necessity of assembling at Rome a sort of council for the decision of this controversy. And thus commenced, about the beginning of the year 1598, those famous deliberations concerning the contests of the Jesuits and Dominicans, which were held in what was called the congregation de auxiliis, or of aids. This congregation was so denominated on account of the principal point in debate, which was the efficacy of the aids and succours of divine grace, and its consultations were directed by Lewis Madrusi, bishop of Trent, and one of the college of cardinals, who sat as president in this assembly, which was composed besides of three bishops and seven divines chosen out of so many different orders. The remaining part of this century was wholly employed by these spiritual judges in hearing and weighing the arguments alleged in favour of their respective opinions,

[ocr errors]

opinions by the contending parties [m]. The Do-CENT. minicans maintained, with the greatest obstinacy, secr. II. the doctrine of their patron St Thomas, as alone P conformable to truth. The Jesuits, on the other hand, though they did not adopt the religious tenets of Molina, thought the honour of their order concerned in this controversy, on account of the opposition so publicly made to one of its members, and consequently used their utmost endeavours to have the Spanish doctor acquitted of the charge of Pelagianism, and declared free from any errors of monent. In this they acted according to the true Monastic spiri, which VOL. IV. leads

R

[m] The history and transactions of this Congregation are related and illustrated by several writers of different complexions, by Jesuits, Dominicans, and Jansenists. Hyacinth Serri, a Dɔminican, published, under the feigned name of Augustin le Blanc, in the year 1700, at Louvain, a work entitled, "Historia Congregationum de auxiliis Gratiæ divinæ;" which was answered by another history of these debates, composed by Liv. de Meyer, a Jesuit, who assumed the name of Theod. Eleutherius, in order to lie concealed from public view, and whose book is entitled, " Historia Controversiarum de Gratie divinæ auxiliis." The Dominicans also published the Acta congregationem et disputationum, quæ coram Clemente VIII. et Paulo V. de auxiliis divine Gratiæ sunt celebrate, a work composed by Thomas de Lemos, a subtile monk of their order, who, in this very congregation, had defended with great applause the glory of St Thomas against the Jesuits. Amidst these jarring accounts, a man must be endowed with a supernatural sagacity to come at the truth. For acts are opposed to acts, testimony to testimony, and narration to narration. It is therefore as yet a matter of doubt, which the court of Rome favoured most on this occasion, the Jesuits or the Dominicans, and which of these two parties defended their cause with the most dexterity and success. There is also a history of these debates written in French, which was pablished, in 8vo, at Louvain, in the year 1702, under the following title: "Histoire de Congregations de auxilis, gar un Docteur de la Faculté de Théologie de Paris." This historian, though he be neither destitute of learning nor eleganc being nevertheless a flaming Jansenist, discovers throughout his enmity against the Jesuits, and relates all things in a manmer that favours the cause of the Dominicans.

R

XVI.

CENT. leads each order to resent the affronts that are ofSECT. III. fered to any of its members, as if they had been PART I. cast upon the whole community, and to maintain, at all adventures, the cause of every individual monk, as if the interests of the society were involved in it.

Rites and

XLII. Notwithstanding the zealous attempts ceremonies. that were made, by several persons of eminent piety, to restore the institutions of public worship to their primitive simplicity, the multitude of vain and useless ceremonies still remained in the church; nor did the pontifs judge it proper to diminish that pomp and show, that gave the ministers of religion a great, though ill-acquired, influence on the minds of the people. Besides these ceremonies, many popular customs and inventions, which were multiplied by the clergy, and were either entirely absurd or grossly superstitious, called loudly for redress; and, indeed, the council of Trent seemed disposed to correct these abuses, and prevent their farther growth. But this good design was never carried into execution; it was abandoned, either through the corrupt prudence of the pope and clergy, who looked upon every check given to superstition as an attempt to diminish their authority, or through their criminal negligence about every thing that tended to promote the true interests of religion. Hence it happens, that in those countries where there are few protestants, and consequently where the church of Rome is in no danger of losing its credit and influence from the proximity and attempts of these pretended heretics, superstition reigns with unlimited extravagance and absurdity. Such is the case in Italy, Spain and Portugal, where the feeble glimmerings of Christianity, that yet remain, are overwhelmed and obscured by an enormous multitude of ridiculous ceremonies, and absurd, fantastic, and unaccountable, rites; so

that

XVI.

that a persion who arrives in any of these countries, CEN T. after having passed through other nations even of SECT. III. the Romish communion, is immediately struck PARTI with the change, and thinks himself transported into the thickest darkness, into the most gloomy retreats, of superstition [n]. Nor, indeed, are even those countries, whom the neighbourhood of the protestants, and a more free and liberal turn of mind have rendered somewhat less absurd, entirely exempt from the dominion of superstition, and the solemn fooleries that always attend it; for the religion of Rome, in its best form, and in those places where its external worship is the least shocking, is certainly loaded with rites and observances that are highly offensive to sound reason. If, from this general view of things, we descend to a more circumstantial consideration of the innumerable abuses that are established in the discipline of that church; if we attend to the pious, or rather impious, frauds which are imposed, with impunity, upon the deluded multitude, in many places; if we pass in review the corruption of the clergy, the ignorance of the people, the devout farces that are acted in the ceremonies of public worship, and the insipid jargon and trifling rhetoric that prevail in the discourses of the Roman-catholic preachers; if we weigh all these things maturely, we shall find, that they have

R 2

little

[n] It is well known that the French, who travel into Italy, employ the whole force of their wit and raillery in rendering ridiculous the monstrous superstition of the Italians. The Italians, in their turn, look upon the French that visit their country as totally destitute of all principles of religion. This is evidently the case, as we learn from the testimony of many writers, and particularly from that of Father Labat, in his Voyages en Italie et en Espagne. This agreeable Dominican lets no opportunity escape of censuring and exposing the superstition of the Spaniards and Italians; nor does he pretend to deny that his countrymen, and even he himself, passed for impious libertines in the opinion of these bigots.

XVI.

CENT. little regard to impartiality and truth, who pretend SECT. 1. that, since the council of Trent, the religion and PART IWorship of the Roman church have been every where corrected and amended.

church may

be divided

branches.

CHAP. II.

The History of the Greek and Eastern Churches.

THE

The eastern I. HE society of Christians, that goes under the general denomination of the eastern into three church, is dispersed throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, and may be divided into three distinct communities. The first is, that of the Greek Christians, who agree, in all points of doctrine and worship, with the patriarch residing at Constantinople, and reject the pretended supreniacy of the Roman pontif. The second comprehends those Christians who differ equally from the Roman pontif and the Grecian patriarch, in their religious opinions and institutions, and who live under the government of their own bishops and rulers. The third is composed of those who are subject to the see of Rome.

The Greck

II. That society of Christians, that lives in relichurch, pre-gious communion with the patriarch of Constanti perly speak-nople, is, properly speaking, the Greek, though it

ing.

assumes likewise the title of the eastern church. This society is subdivided into two branches, of which the one acknowledges the supreme authority and jurisdiction of the bishop of Constantinople; while the other, though joined in communion of doctrine and worship with that prelate, yet obstinately refuses to receive his legates, or to obey his edicts, and is governed by its own laws and institutions, under the jurisdiction of spiritual rulers, who are independent on all foreign autho rity.

III. That

« הקודםהמשך »