enemy commenced his most furious attacks. Provinces which, under a healthier state of things, might have been found peopled with ready and undaunted soldiers of the Cross, quickly yielded to the bold imposture, as well as to the sword, of Mahomet. Uncertainty seemed to mark the creed of Christians; and imperfect, or ill-instructed converts, could not find their way through the snares laid for them by Nestorianism, or other hostile systems, to the cloudless region of heavenly truth itself. Bewildered and alarmed, the unhesitating assertions of the impostor, the daring confidence which characterised his pretended revelations, could not but strike them as very different to the questioning tone of their Christian instructors. In a more enlightened state, they would have understood, that it is falsehood only which never questions, or teaches men not to inquire. But there were multitudes who, though they had received the Gospel, yet knew nothing more than its name. They were ready, therefore, to yield to any, the slightest invasion; while of those innumerable hordes which the Church had not yet been able to bring even nominally within its limits, a large proportion were ready to embrace, irrevocably, the first system which might appeal with sufficient force to their rude imaginations. Awful and startling were the consequences which almost immediately followed the successes of Mahomet; but they were still more terrible in after ages, and had it not been for the wonderful providence of

God, the place of the Church would have been known no more, except as devout inquirers might have discovered it in the remotest and obscurest regions.

Yet, while such was the peril which daily threatened the Church from this new enemy, the causes of dissension among its rulers were allowed to increase, with scarcely an effort to remove them. The title of Universal Bishop assumed by the patriarch of Constantinople had long excited the jealousy of the Roman pontiff. In the revolutions of the empire in the East, opportunities were furnished to the latter of engaging the reigning monarch to aid his ambitious views; and the transfer of the title of oecumenical bishop from the patriarch to the pope is commonly described as the conjoint work of Boniface III. and the Emperor Phocas. However this may be, the struggle between the two prelates became every day more violent, nor could the least attentive observer fail to see that the course of events was fast tending to the total separation of the Eastern and Western churches. The power of the Roman pontiff did not at once reach maturity. It was evidently not as yet understood, or allowed, by foreign churches, that it was a part of their duty to render obedience to Rome as their mother, or sovereign. This was the case both in France and England; and some generations had yet to pass away before the title of universal bishop was recognised as having a real and intelligible signification. The student of church

history will do well to observe, that the rise of the papal power is not to be accounted for by the direct increase of influence on the side of Rome itself, but must also be regarded as the consequence of a rapid decline in the light, vigour, and purity of other churches. "How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house." Literature, on all sides, exhibited in this century, more of the enervating influences of adverse circumstances. As a consequence of the decline of learning, the compilations from the fathers possessed less and less of the vigour of the sublime originals; while the authors who pretended to originality found sufficient occupation for their ability in describing the advancing discipline of the Church, or in explaining and advocating the new phases of opinion now beginning to be very generally presented.

XXXII. The controversies of the East still continued to prove the enormous power with which the doctrines disputed had operated on the minds of the conflicting parties. Though the authority of councils, or the interference of the emperors, had sufficed to silence, from time to time, the voices loudest in dispute, it required but the occurrence of some slight circumstance, or even the chance expression of a prelate, or doctor of the Church, to arouse the slumbering spirit of controversy, and endanger again the peace of universal Christendom. The existence of two such powerful

parties as that of the Monophysites and the Nestorians, could not but threaten the state with perpetual convulsions. In the case of the latter, there was now less to fear on the part of the church than on that of the empire. They had long settled themselves in Persia, and in those countries which were now overrun by the disciples of Mahomet. But the Monophysites existed in numerous and active bodies in the midst of the Church; and whatever had as yet been done to silence their complaints against the established creed, it was well known that they neglected no opportunity of contrasting their opinions with those of the orthodox.

Distressed at the appearance which affairs thus presented, the Emperor Heraclius was induced to make a new attempt at restoring tranquillity. He had been persuaded to believe, that the Monophysites wanted but little to show their willingness to reenter the Church. "If," it was said, "the orthodox will consent to acknowledge that, though there be the divine and human nature in Christ, there is but one will, the Monophysites will prove their contentedness with the general profession of faith, and cease from any further agitation." This communication was first made to Heraclius while in Syria. It arose from his conversation with the patriarch of the Jacobites, to whom he promised the see of Antioch, on condition that he acknowledged the authority of the council of Chalcedon. The patriarch immediately drew Heraclius into a difficult discussion respecting the will of Christ,

at the conclusion of which the latter wrote to Sergius, the patriarch of Constantinople, requiring his advice on this important subject. But Sergius himself was strongly inclined to the views of the Monophysites, and he answered the emperor, that there was in Christ but one natural will and operation. Cyrus, then bishop of Phasis, and soon after elevated to the see of Alexandria, worked zealously in the same cause, and by a solemn act of re-union brought back a large body of Eutychians to pretended communion with the church. The great opponent of this proceeding was the monk Sophronius, who having in vain remonstrated with Cyrus, hastened to lay his complaints before Sergius. That dignitary, however, was as ardent in the support of the new statement of doctrine, or Monothelism, as Cyrus himself. He answered Sophronius, therefore, in language which threw but a slight veil over the doubtful character of his notions; and the afflicted monk retired to support his orthodox opinions among those who were more ready to listen to his representations. These in some provinces obtained so earnest an attention, that he was eventually elected patriarch of Jerusalem, an occurrence which alarmed Sergius sufficiently to induce him to seek, at some sacrifice of pride, the co-operation of the Roman pontiff. Honorius, it appears, did not take the means necessary to detect the real meaning or intentions of Sergius. He praised his circumspection in the conduct of