in a system, which, if not popery, will answer all the evil purposes for which popery is designed.

In concluding our remarks, therefore, we would desire to call the attention of our readers to the simple but forcible manner in which our church, in her Articles, meets and opposes this delusion. And as Mr. Maurice, though no great friend of Protestantism, yet admires the Articles of his Church, we hope that he may some day be led to see how irreconcileable his own theory is with their teaching. In contradiction to the corporate-life notion, the Thirtynine Articles, after having stated what is revealed in Scripture respecting the object of our worship, and declared the rule of faith, proceed at once to enumerate the great and fundamental doctrines of the gospel which emphatically relate to Christians as individuals. And it is only after they have fully dealt with these, and have set forth the corrupt nature of man,-his need of preventing and cooperating grace,-his justification through faith,-his good works as fruits of his faith, and the other individual truths contained in the Articles from the ninth to the eighteenth, that they at length notice the Church, and give a definition of it, which accords exactly with the supposition, so odious to Mr. Maurice, that the Church consists of a number of individual Christians, united in a spiritual body to each other, because they belong individually to Christ; but which, on any other view, must appear singularly defective and unmeaning. The Articles have indeed proved a sore stumbling-block to those who are anxious to exalt what are now commonly called Church principles; and while those who are undermining the truth of our Church feel this contradiction between their principles and hers, it is good for her more faithful members to be sensible of it also, and to cling more resolutely to the simple verities to which she bears witness in these days of error and delusion.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANNALS: from the Commencement of Scripture History to the Epoch of the Reformation. By FREDERICK SPANHEIM, D.D. Translated by the Rev. GEORGE WRIGHT. London: Rivingtons. 1810.

ECCLESIASTICAL CHRONOLOGY; or, the Annals of the Christian Church. By the Rev. J. E. RIDDLE, M.A. London: Longmans. 1840.

We have carefully examined these two volumes, more especially in the portions which give a view of the middle ages; and cannot express entire satisfaction with either. Mr. Riddle's is by far the best of the two, and by a revision and enlargement might be rendered a very useful and valuable work, and one of general acceptability with all students. But at present there are obvious and manifold deficiencies in both these productions. To instance a few :-In Professor Spanheim's book, there is not a single allusion to the history of the Paulicians. A body of Christians which existed in great numbers for several centuries, excited the attention of several of the emperors, suffered many persecutions, and occupy a considerable space in Mosheim, Milner, and all other church histories, is here wholly overlooked. Not once is even their name mentioned. Mr. Riddle, on the other hand, while the Paulicians appear in his Annals no fewer than ten times, is guilty of injustice towards the not less important body of the Albigenses, who are named only twice, and then very insufficiently. Mr. Riddle places Peter Allix, indeed, among his ecclesiastical authors; but he affords no proof of his having ever read Allix's volumes, without a careful study of which, no man can be competent to compile an "Ecclesiastical Chronology." Yet we like Mr. Riddle's work, in spite of its defects. Its mode of arrangement is very simple and popular, and we hope that its sale may be such as to enable the author to give us, very shortly, a new and enlarged edition.

We took up both these works afresh, in pursuit of the study in which we have been recently engaged; namely, the rise and progress of the Witnessing Churches during the 1260 years. On this subject we have endeavoured to avail ourselves of every accessible source of information; and must report, that the student who possesses himself of the volumes of Peter Allix and George Stanley Faber, will possess, in a very small compass, every important fact that is authentically known on these subjects. From these sources we shall now proceed to draw a few general particulars of the ALBIGENSIC CHURCHES.

Before we sketched an outline, in our last number, of the Vallensic Church History, we had given a brief narrative of the rise of the Paulicians. We now resume that history; for the Albigenses are the legitimate children of the Paulician Church. This is evident, both from the chronology of the two communities, and from their identity of feature.

It was in A.D. 870, that Petrus Siculus visited the Paulician settlement of Tibrica; and very shortly after that period, the continued persecutions to which they were exposed, forced them to continue their movement westward. From Thrace they passed into Bulgaria, but finding no resting-place there, they gradually dispersed themselves over the central parts of Europe, and chiefly in the southern provinces or kingdoms of France. Their original name, Paulicians or "Pavlikians," became transmuted into "Publicans," and sometimes even into "Paphlagonians." And, as it was in the course of the tenth and eleventh centuries that their dispersal and progress westward took place, so, in exact agreement with this date, we find the first complaint made of their existence, in the south of France, by the Romish priests, in the early part of the twelfth. The council of Toulouse, in A.D. 1119, directed an anathema against them. And in A.D. 1163, the council of Tours thus speaks:

Where

"In the country about Toulouse, there sprung up long ago a damnable heresy, which by little and little, like a cancer, spreading itself in the neighbouring places in Gascoin, hath already infected many other provinces; which, whilst, like a serpent, it hid itself in its own windings and twinings, crept on more secretly, and threatened more danger to the simple and unwary. fore we do command all bishops and priests, dwelling in these parts, to keep a watchful eye upon these heretics, and, under the pain of excommunication, to forbid all persons, as soon as these heretics are discovered, from presuming to afford them any abode in their country, or to lend them any assistance, or to entertain any commerce with them in buying or selling; that so at least, by the loss of the advantages of human society, they may be compelled to repent of the error of their life. And if any prince, making himself partaker of their iniquity, shall endeavour to oppose these decrees, let him be struck with the same anathema."1

The expression, "there sprung up long ago," very well agrees with the probabilities of the case, for we may suppose some of the Paulician fugitives to have reached that country a little before or after the year 1000, or from one hundred and fifty to two hundred years before A.D. 1163, the date of this decree.

1 Allia's Albigensie Churches, pp. 133, 134.

However this may be, we find the prevalence of " heresy" in Gascony, Languedoc, Provence, and Aquitaine, becoming a matter of constant lamentation with the Romish ecclesiastics throughout the twelfth century. The Archbishop of Narbonne, writing to Louis VII., says, "We are extremely pressed with many calamities, among which there is one which most of all affects us, namely, that the Catholic faith is extremely shaken in this our diocese; and St. Peter's boat is so violently tossed by the waves, that it is in danger of sinking."1

In the like tone writes Henry, Abbot of Clairvaux, (quoted in the Annals of Hoveden, A.D. 1178) "that this plague was come to such a head in that country, that they had not only made themselves priests and popes, but also had their 'evangelists."" 2

An edict of like date, also given by Hoveden, says, "Wherefore, because the damnable perverseness of these heretics, whom some call Cathari, others Publicans, (Paulicians), others Paterines, &c., is increased in Gascoin, the country of Albi, and other places; so far that they do no more now, as in other places, exercise their impiety in private, but manifest their errors publicly, &c. &c.." 3

Once more, the prelates assembled at Lavaur, wrote to Innocent III. in these terms;-" Whereas the heretical pestilence, which of old time hath been sown in those parts, was now grown to that height, that divine worship was scorned and derided, and the heretics on one hand, and the robbers on the other, harassed the clergy and the church's revenue." 4

is the term

But not the chronology only, but the terms and accusations levelled against the Paulicians in the east, follow them also in their retreat into Gascony. We have observed that they were called "Publicans," a name obviously corrupted from "Pavlikians;" and in some cases even "Paphlagonians employed. But besides this, the accusation of being Manichees, precedes and accompanies them in all their wanderings. Lucas of Tuy says of them, "Their object is to introduce the Manichæan heresy, and to acknowledge two Gods." 5 Radulph Ardens writes, "Such are those Manichæan heretics, who by their heresy have polluted the country of Agenois."6 An ancient history of Aquitain, edited by Pitheus, thus speaks of the year A.D. 1017, "Forthwith sprang up, throughout Aquitain, certain Manichæans."7

The mere occurrence of several statements of this kind, in ancient writers, has induced Archbishop Usher and Dr. Allix to concede, that besides the orthodox Albigenses and Vaudois, there may have

1 Allix, p. 134.
5 Faber's Inquiry, p. 86.

Ibid. p.

135.

3 Ibid. p. 135.
Ibid. p. 88.

Ibid. p. 136. 7 Ibid. p. 89.

been some fugitive Paulician Manichees in the same parts,—viz., Provence, Gascony, and Aquitain.

There is, however, no valid evidence on which to base such a supposition. There is no doubt that as, in the east, the original Paulicians were branded by all adherents to the dominant church, with the stigma of Manichæism,-so, in passing over into the west, the calumnious rumour or charge would travel with them; and furnish the simplest means of annoying and persecuting them, wherever they became practically obnoxious to the ecclesiastics. But before we admit them to be Manichæans, simply because the monks, who hated them, called them by that name; common sense and justice would suggest the propriety, first, of examining the accusers, and testing their consistency: and, secondly, of enquiring what the accused alleged in their own vindication.

Now the fact is, that the accusation utterly breaks down, before we can proceed to call upon the accused for their reply. The allegations of Manichæism, brought against the Albigenses, are, 1. brought in conjunction with other charges, so absurd as to destroy the credibility of all who could allege them: 2. they are wholly unsupported by any evidence: 3. and clear proof is given, by the accusers themselves, that they do not seriously believe the allegations which they have made.

1. They combine, with the general allegation of Manichæism, certain specific charges, too absurd to allow us to imagine that they could themselves have credited them. Such as "These heretics are called Cathari, from the word Catis; because they are in the habit of kissing the hinder parts of a cat; under which form Lucifer is wont to appear unto them."1 They make a cake of meal, mixed with the blood of an infant. They meet together naked to pray, men and women promiscuously." "They assert that the sun is the Devil; and that the moon is Eve; who lie together as man and wife once a month." 3

Obviously, when the accusers repeat all these, and a thousand other absurd calumnies, and then, in the same breath, add the general charge of Manichæism, the prudent and justice-loving hearer will not hastily credit any part of the accusation.

2. 3. The charge of Manichæan heresy is wholly unsupported by proof. Nay, on the contrary, we have records of discussions and controversies held with them by the Popish ecclesiastics, and these discussions do not turn on the Manichæan errors.

For instance, we have the conference of Albi, related by Roger Hoveden, in the annals of A.D. 1176. At this conference the 1 Alan. cont. hæret. lib. i. c. 63. (apud Usser.)

2 Reiner. de hæret. c. vi.

3 Dupin, vol. x. p. 89.