riches and power, should turn their thoughts to objects more suitable to their profession, and be ambitious of living and acting as became the successors of the holy apostles; and fourthly, that transgressions of a more heinous kind, or mortal sins, should be punished in a manner suitable to their enormity. In this great faction however there were some subordinate sects, who were divided upon several points. The administration of the Lord's supper was one occasion of dispute; Jacobellus de Misa, who had first proposed the celebration of that ordinance under both kinds, was of opinion, that infants had a right to partake of it, and this opinion was adopted by many; while others maintained the contrary doctrine, and confined the privilege in question to persons of riper years.'

VI. The demands of the Taborites, who derived their

name from a mountain well known in sacred hisTaborites. tory, were much more ample. They not only insisted upon reducing the religion of Jesus to its primitive simplicity; but required also, that the system of ecclesiastical government should be reformed in the same manner, the authority of the pope destroyed, the form of divine worship changed; they demanded, in a word, the erection of a new church, a new hierarchy, in which Christ alone should reign, and all things should be carried on by a divine direction and impulse. In maintaining these extravagant demands, the principal doctors among the Taborites, such as Martin Loquis, a Moravian, and his followers, went so far as to flatter themselves with the chimerical notion, that Christ would descend in person upon earth, armed with fire and sword, to extirpate heresy, and purify the church from its multiplied corruptions. These fanatical dreams they propagated every where, and taught them even in a public manner with unparalleled confidence and presumption. It is this enthusiastic class of the Hussites alone, that we are to look upon as accountable for all those abominable acts of violence, rapine, desolation, and murder which are too indiscriminately laid to the charge of the Hussites, in general, and to their two leaders Zisca and Procopius in particular. It must indeed be acknowledged, that a

y Byzinii Diarium Hussiticum, p. 130.

z From the following opinions and maxims of the Taborites, which may be seen in the Diarium Hussiticum of Byzinius, we may form a just idea of their detestable barharity; "Omnes legis Christi adversarii debent puniti septem plagis novissimis, ad

great part of the Hussites had imbibed the most barbarous sentiments with respect to the obligation of executing vengeance upon their enemies, against whom they breathed nothing but bloodshed and fury, without any mixture of humanity or compassion.

bemia termi

VII. In the year 1433, the council of Basil endeavoured to put an end to this dreadful war, and for that The commopurpose invited the Bohemians to their assembly. tions in BThe Bohemians, accepting this invitation, sent uated. ambassadors, and, among others, Procopius their leader, to represent them in that council. But, after many warm debates, these messengers of peace returned without having effected any thing that might even prepare the way for a reconciliation so long and so ardently desired. The Calixtines were not averse to peace; but no methods of persuasion could engage the Taborites to yield. This matter however was transacted with more success by Æneas Sylvius and others, whom the council sent into Bohemia to renew the conferences. For these new legates, by allowing the Calixtines the use of the cup in the holy sacrament, satisfied them in the point which they had chiefly at heart, and thereby reconciled them with the Roman pontiff. But the Taborites remained firm, adhered inflexibly to their first principles; and neither the artifice nor eloquence of Sylvius, nor the threats, sufferings, and persecutions to which their cause exposed them, could vanquish their obstinate perseverance in it. From this period indeed they began to review their religious tenets, and their ecclesiastical discipline, with a design to render them more perfect. This review, as it was executed with great

quarum executionem fideles sunt provocandi. In isto tempore ultionis Christus in sua humilitate et miseratione non est imitandus ad ipsos peccatores, sed in zelo et furore et justa retributione. In hoc tempore ultionis, quilibet fidelis, etiam presbyter, quanLumcunque spiritualis, est maledictus, qui gladium suum corporalem prohibet a sanguine adversariorum legis Christi, sed debet manus suas lavare in eorum sanguine et sanctificare." From men, who adopted such horrid and detestable maxims, what could be expected but the most abominable acts of injustice and cruelty? For an account of this dreadful and calamitous war, the reader may consult, beside the ancient writers, such as Sylvius, Theobaldus, Cochlæus, and others, Lenfant, Histoire de la Guerre des Hussites, which was published at Amsterdam in two volumes, in 4to. in the year 1731. To this history it will however be advisable to add the Diarium Belli Hussitici of Byzinus, a book worthy of the highest esteem, on account of the candour and impar tiality with which it is composed, and which Mr. Lenfant does not seem to have consulted. This valuable production has been published, though incomplete, in the sixth volume of the Reliquiæ Manuscriptorum of the very learned John Peter_Ludwig. See also Beausobre's supplement to the Histoire de la Guerre des Hussites, Lausanne, 1745, in 4to.

prudence and impartiality, produced a very good effect, and gave a rational aspect to the religion of this sect, who withdrew themselves from the war, abandoned the doctrines, which, upon serious examination, they found to be inconsistent with the spirit and genius of the gospel, and banished from their communion all those whose disordered brains, or licentious manners might expose them to reproach. The Taborites, thus new modelled, were the same with those Bohemian brethren, or piccards, i. e. beghards, as their adversaries called them, who joined Luther and his successors at the reformation, and of whom there are at this day many of the descendants and followers in Poland and other countries.

tors.

VIII. Among the greatest part of the interpreters of Commenta. Scripture that lived in this century, we find nothing worthy of applause, if we except their zeal and their good intentions. Such of them as aimed at something higher than the character of bare compilers, and ventured to draw their explications from their own sense of things, did little more than amuse, or rather delude their readers with mystical and allegorical fancies. At the head of this class of writers is Alphonsus Tostatus, bishop of Avila, whose voluminous commentaries upon the sacred writings exhibit nothing remarkable but their enormous bulk. Laurentius Valla is entitled to a more favourable judgment, and his small collection of Critical and Grammatical Annotations upon the New Testament is far from being destitute of merit, since it pointed out to succeeding authors the true method of removing the difficulties that sometimes present themselves to such as study with attention the divine oracles. It is proper to observe here, that these sacred books were, in almost all the kingdoms and states of Europe, translated into the language of each respective people, particularly in Germany, Italy, France, and Britain. This circumstance naturally excited the expectations of a considerable change in the state of religion, and made the thinking few hope, that the doctrine of the church would be soon reformed by the light, that

a See Adriani Regenvolschii Historia Eccles. provinciar. Sclavonicar. lib. ii. cap. viii. p. 165. Joach. Camerarii Historica Narratio de fratrum Ecclesiis in Bohemia, Moravia, et Polonia, Heidelb. 1605, in 4to. Jo. Lasitii Historia fratrum Bohemicorum, which I possess in manuscript, and of which the eighth book was published in 8vo. at Amsterdam, in the year 1649.

could not but arise from consulting the genuine sources of divine truth.

moralists hated

IX. The schools of divinity made a miserable figure in this century. They were filled with teachers, The scholastic who loaded their memory, and that of their disci- divines and ples, with unintelligible distinctions and unmean- and opposed. ing sounds, that they might thus dispute and discourse with an appearance of method, upon matters which they did not understand. There were now few remaining, of those who proved and illustrated the doctrines of religion by the positive declarations of the holy Scriptures, and the sentiments of the ancient fathers, and who, with all their defects, were much superior to the vain and obscure pedants of whom we now speak. The senseless jargon of the latter did not escape the just and heavy censure of some learned and judicious persons, who looked upon their method of teaching as highly detrimental to the interests of true religion, and to the advancement of genuine and solid piety. Accordingly, various plans were formed by different persons, some of which had for their object the abolition of this method, others its reformation, while, in the mean time, the enemies of the schoolmen increased from day to day. The mystics, of whom we shall have occasion to speak more largely hereafter, were ardently bent upon banishing entirely this scholastic theology out of the Christian church. Others, who seemed disposed to treat matters with more moderation, did not insist upon its total suppression, but were of opinion, that it was necessary to reform it, by abolishing all vain and useless subjects of debate, by restraining the rage of disputing that had infected the seminaries of theology, and by seasoning the subtilty of the schoolmen with a happy temperature of mystic sensibility and simplicity. This opinion was adopted by the famous Gerson, who laboured with the utmost zeal and assiduity in correcting and reforming the disorders and abuses that the scholastic divines had introduced into the seminaries, as also by Savanarola, Petrus de Alliaco, and Nicholas Cusanus, whose treatise concerning learned ignorance is still extant.

b Rich. Simon, Lettres Choisies, tom. ii. p. 269, and Critique de la Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique M. Du Pin, tom. i. p. 491. Thomasii Origines Histor. Philos. p. 56, and principally Gersonis Methodus Theologiam Studendi, in Launoii Historia Gymnas. Navarreni, tom. iv. opp. part i. p. 330.

Principally by

the restorers

ture and

quence,

x. The litigious herd of schoolmen found a new class of enemies equally keen, in the restorers of eloquence and letters, who were not all however of of polite the same opinion with respect to the manner of treating these solemn quibblers. Some of them covered with ridicule, and loaded with invectives, the scholastic doctrine, and demanded its suppression, as a most trifling and absurd system, that was highly detrimental to the culture and improvement of the mind, and every way proper to prevent the growth of genius and true science. Others looked upon this system as supportable, and only proposed illustrating and polishing it by the powers of eloquence, thus to render it more intelligible and elegant. Of this class was Paulus Cortesius, who wrote, with this view, a Commentary on the Book of Proverbs, in which, as we learn from himself, he forms a happy union between eloquence and theology, and clothes the principal intricacies of scholastic divinity with the graces of an agreeable and perspicuous style. But after all, the scholastic theology, supported by the extraordinary credit and authority of the Dominicans and Franciseans, maintained its ground against its various opposers, nor could these two religious orders, who excelled in that litigious kind of learning, bear the thoughts of losing the glory they had acquired by quibbling and disputing in the pompous jargon of the schools.

xi. This vain philosophy however grew daily more and also by contemptible in the esteem of the judicious and the mystics the wise, while, at the same time, the mystics gathered strength, and saw their friends and abettors multiply on all sides. Among these there were indeed certain men of distinguished merit, who are chargeable with few of the errors and extravagances that were mingled with the discipline and doctrine of that famous sect, such as Thomas a Kempis, the author of the Germanic theology, so highly commended by Luther, Laurentius, Justinianus, Savanarola, and others. There are, on the other hand, some writers of this sect, such as Vincentius, Ferrerius, Henricus, Harphius, and Bernard Senensis, in whose productions we must carefully separate certain notions which were the effects of a warm and irregular fancy,

e This work was published in folio at Rome in the year 1512, and at Basil in 1513.