Columbia Sanibersittp in tfje Citp of iSehj gorfe
LIBRARY
GIVEN BY
HISTORY
OF THE
INQUISITION.
THE
HISTORY
OF THE
INQUISITION,
AS IT HAS SUBSISTED IN
FRANCE, ITALY, SPAIN, PORTUGAL, VENICE, SICILY, SARDINIA, MILAN, POLAND, FLANDERS, &c. &c.
With a particular Description of its
Secret ^ti^on&y
MODES OF TORTUPF, STYLE OF aCLVSATION, TRIAL,
Abridged FROM THE r,''.lBO::JATE WOKK OF
PHILIP LIMB OUCH,
Professor of Divinity at Amsterdam. INTRODUCED BY AN HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE
And illustrated by Extracts from various Writers, and original Manuscript.
Tnteresting Particulars of
PERSONS WHO HAVE SUFFERED
THE TERRORS OF THAT DARK AND SANGUINARY TRIBUNAL,
And
POLITICAL REFLECTIONS ON ITS REVIVAL IN SPAIN,
By the Decree of Fer dinand VII.
LONDOS: PRINTED FOR W. SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL,
STATIONERS'-COUKT, LUDGATE-STREET.
1816.
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Plummer and Brewis, Printers, Love-Lane, Eastcheap, Lmdon.
PREFACE.
■•.*/V^*'»'W*/W*
THE learned author of the following work, Philip Limborch, was born at Amsterdam in 1633, where he studied with great success, and at the age of twenty-two entered on the public work of the ministry, at Haerlem ; his sermons had in them no affected eloquence, but were peculiarly solid, methodical and edifying. He was first chosen minister of Goudja, and afterwards called to Amsterdam, where he had the professorship of divinity, in which he acquitted himself with great reputation, throughout the remainder of a long andtranquil life; he died in 1712, aged seventy- nine years.
A 3
Yl PREFACE.
This venerable man, possessed all the qualifi- cations and virtues, which belong to the character of a sincere minister, an admirable genius, and a tenacious memory. He enjoyed the particular inti- macy of many distinguished individuals, in his own and in foreign countries, among whom was Mr. Locke, in whose works some 'of his letters are preserved. He wrote, " A Complete Body of Di- vinity, according to the opinions and doctrines of the Remonstrants," and several smaller works, be- sides publishing those of Episcopius, who was his relative.
His greatest undertaking was, " The History of the Inquisition," in which, with vast labour, he availed himself of his talents and peculiar local situ- ation, in gaining access to, and combining the testi- monies of, numerous authors. The general plan pursued in the formation of this work, he thus describes : " I have not through an attachment to any party, written any thing contrary to truth, I have made use of Popish authors,* yea, In-
* With the exception of archbishop Usher and R. Gonsalvius.
PREFACE. vil
quisitors themselves, and counsellors of the Inquisition, who are so far from having written any thing untrue, out of hatred to the Inquisition, that they every where extol its sanctity and advan- tages ; and therefore whatever they write, I assured myself I might safely relate, without charge of calumny. The reader niay perhaps wonder at one thing, that I have always called those who differ from the church of Rome, Heretics-, he will remem- ber that is not my sense, and I speak chiefly the language of Popish writers; but I sincerely believe, that those whom the church of Rome has con- demned for Heresy, have died and gloriously en- dured the punishment of fire, for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and the maintaining a good con- science,"
When this work first appeared, it excited great attention, and had the honour of being condemned and prohibited by an edict of the cardinals inqui- sitors at Rome, who forbad the reading of it under
Montanus a protestant, who gathered a church at Seville, about the death of the Emperor Charles V. which was scattered and de- stroyed by the Inquisition.
A 4
viii , PREFACE.
the severest penalties. It received however, the far more positive distinction of John Locke's par- ticular approbation, " that incomparable judge of men and books, who gives it the highest character, commends it for its method and perspicuity, and pronounces it a work in its kind absolutely perfect. In a letter addressed to Mr. Limborch, he tells him, that he had so fully exposed their secret arts of wickedness and cruelty, that if they had any remains of humanity in them, they must be asham- ed of that horrid tribunal, in which every thing that was just and righteous was so monstrously perverted ; and that it was fit to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation, that all might understand the Ante-Christian practices of that execrable court."*
, If any apology could be necessary for presenting a work of this kind (for a long time contemplated) to the public, at the present moment, it might be found in the aspect of the times, in which Popery so entirely
* Vide Preface by the translator. Dr. Chandler, who published this work in English, 2 vols. 4to. 1732, with a long and highly respectable list of subscribers.
PREFACE. IX
overwhelmed in the apprehension of many, is again lifting up its head, and resorting to its usual means of supplying deficiency of argument by force and violence.
In forming this abridgment of Mr. Limborch's valuable work, the editor has used his best judg- ment, in preserving what he considered as most interesting. The Edicts which are in the original printed at length and which occupy much space, he has generally omitted, retaining their spirit; Wherever it could be done, he has preferred the language of the author ; but if he has found it necessary to lessen the number of words, which relate a circumstance, he has still endeavoured carefully to preserve the references, which are so indispensable in the pages of authenticated history.
It appears somewhat remarkable, that few modern writers have regarded the Inquisition, with that pointed attention which its magnitude deserves ; the reader of its history will find it no mean object of contemplation. The design of affording an authentic
X PREFACE.
view of this powerful coadjutor of Romish doc- trine, in a portable form, suggested the idea of the present volume. For the selection of notes, (with a trifling exception,) the Introductory Survey of the Christian Church and the two concluding Chapters the editor is responsible ; and if the combined effect of his labours should be, that of promoting just views, respecting the proper boundaries of civil and ecclesiastical authority, and of inducing any to believe, from the dire consequences of bigotry and intolerance, that difference of religious opinion is not a proper ground for personal hatred, and that in promoting the happiness of others by every suitable means, w^e really advance our own ; he will feel that peculiar pleasure which arises from the contemplation of exertions, successfully em- ployed, and in this hope the work is now presented to the attention of a candid and discerning public.
THE CONTENTS.
HISTORICAL Survey of the Christian Church Page 1
BOOK I.
OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE INQUISITION.
Chap. Page. I The Doctrine of Jesus Christ forbids Persecution on the ac- count of Religion *.. 59
II. . . » . . . The opinion of the primitive Christians concerning persecu- tion CI
III The Laws of the Emperors, after the Nicene couuril against
the Arians and other heretics 64
IV The Arian persecutions of the Orthodox 70
V The opinion of some of the Fathers concerning the persecu- tion of Dissenters 72
VI St. Aiigustine^s opinion concerning the persecution of heretics 75
VII .... The persecutions of the Popes against heretics 79
VIII.. .. Of the Albigcnses and Waldenses *.. . . 81 '
IX Of the persecutions against the Albigenses and Waldenses.. 88
X Of Dorainicus, and the first rise of the Tholouse Inquisition . 92
XI Of tlie wars against Raymond, father and son/ Earls of
Tholouse 98
XII Several councils held, and the Laws of the Emperor Frederic
II., by which the office of the inquisition was greatly pro- moted ... 107
XIII.... The Inquisition introduced into Arragon, France,>Tholouse,
and Italy 110 -
XIV.. . . Of the first hindrances to the progress of the Inquisition .... 115 *"
XV The more speedy progress of the Inquisition 118 >■
XVI.. .. The Inquisition introduced into several places 124**
XVII... Of the Inquisition at Venice 126
XVIII.. The Inquisition against the Apostolics, Templars, and others. 130
XIX. . . . The Inquisition against the Beguins 133
XX The process against Mathew Galeacius, Viscoimt Milan, and
others 187
XXI. . . . The inquisition introduced into Poland, and restored in France 139
-xXXII. . . Of Wickliff, Huss, and the Inquisition against the Htissites. . 141
■ «XXIII.. Of the Inquisition in Valence, Flanders, and Artois 14S
CONTENTS. Chap. P^o^'
XXIV.. Of the Spanish Inquisition l^*"**
XXV... Of the Inquisition in Portugal 154
XXVI.. Of the attempt to bring the Inquisition into the kingdom of
Naples 158
XXVII.. Of the Inquisition in Sicily, Sardinia, and Milan 160
XXVllI. The return of the Inquisition into Germany and France at the
time of the Reformation *61
XXIX. . Six Cardinals appointed at Rome Inquisitors General 164
XXX... Of the Inquisition in Spain against heretics 165
XXXI . Of the Inquisition in the Low Countries 172
BOOK II.
OF THE MINISTERS OF THE OFFICE OF THE INaUISITION.
Cmap. Pace.
I O F the Ministers of the Inquisition in general 17^1*
II. Of the Inquisitors. 177H
III ... . Of the Vicars and Assistants of the Inquisition 186
IV Of Assessors and Counsellors necessary to the office of the In- quisition 9 1*^
V Of the Promoter Fiscal 191
VI ... . Of the Notaries of the Inquisition 19*
VII. . . Of the Judge and Receiver of the confiscated effects 196
VIII. . Of the Executor and Official of the Inquisition 199
IX. . . . Of the Familiars or Attendants 202
X Of the Cross Bearers 204
X.I Of the Visitors of the Inquisitors 207
XII ... Of the duty or power of every Magistrate 208
XIII.. Of the privileges of the Inquisitors c 21K
XIV. . . Of the amplitude of the Jurisdiction of the Inquisitors 218
XV.... Of the power of the Inquisitors 224\
XVI. . . Of the povver of the Inquisitors in prohibiting books ; 22»\
XVII.. What the Inquisitors can do themselves, and what in conjunc
tion with the Ordinaries > • • • • • • 23^
XVIIl . Of the jail of the Inquisitors, and Keepers of the jail 236
XIX.. . Of the expences requisite in the administration of the Inquisi- tion, and confiscation of effects applied to this use 259^
XX. ... Of the salaries of the Inquisitors and other officers 264\
BOOK III.
CRIMES BELONGING TO THE TRIBUNAL OF THE INaUISITION.
Chap. Vkgz,
I OF Heretics, and their ecclesiastical puaishraents. • • • • • 26»n^
II Of thecivil punishments of Heretics ••• . 279»-^
CONTENTS. Chap. Page.
Ill Of epen and secret Heretics >. 293**
IV. . . . Of affirmative and negative Heretics 294^
V Of Heretics impenitent and penitent SOCT*
VI.... Of Arch Heretics 30S
VH. . . Of the Believers of Heretics, and of Schismatics 304
VHI.. Of the Receivers and Defenders of Heretics 306****
IX.... Of the Favourers of Heretics 307 *
X Of the Hinderers of the Office of the Inquisition 310
XI.. .. Of Persons suspected of Heresy 314'**
XII... Of Persons defamed for Heresy 3lf^
XIII.. Of Persons relapsed 318
XIV. . Of such who read and keep prohibited Books 319*
XV. . . Of Polygamists 322
XVI.. Of those who celebrate and administer the Sacrament of Pe- nance, not being priests 32ft
XVII.. Of soliciting Confessors 327
XVIII. Of one that is insordescent in Excommunication 331
XIX.. Of Blaspliemers 33S
XX. . . Of Diviners, Fortune-Tellers, and Astrologers 335
XXI.. OfWilches > 337
XXII . Of Jews, and such as return to Jewish rites 341 #
BOOK IV.
OF THE MANNER OF PROCEEDING BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL OF THE INQUISITION.
Chap. Page.
I HOW the Inquisitor begins his office 349*^
II Of the promulgation of an Edict of Faith 353
III Of the obligation to denounce every Heretic to the Inqui- sition 355
IV Of such who voluntarily appear, and the grace shewn them 358
V Of the three methods of beginning the process before th«
Tribunal of the Inquisition 359
VI How the Process begins by way of Inquisition 361
VII. How the process begins by accusation 364
VIII How the process begins by denunciation ... 366
IX Of the witnesses, and who are admitted as witnesses before
the Tribunal of the Inquisition 368
X Of the number of the witnesses » 370
XI Of the examination of the witnesses 372
XII How the criminals when informed against are sent to jail 374 ^
XIII Of the exammatiou of the prisoners 377
XIV What arts the Inquisitors iise to draw a confession from the
prisoners 379
XV.,.*t«» How the prisunera are allowed an advocate^ procurator
and guardian «.»•# t •# f t i.t t •••• 38t *"
CONTENTS. Chap, Page.
XVI How the prisoners are interrogated by the Inquisitor, whe-
» tlier they allow the witnesses to be rightly examined^and
re heard 384
XVII .... How the piomoUr Fiscal txhibits tlic Bill of accusation.. 386 XVIlf.... How the interrogatories t?iveii in by the Ciiniinals are
torraed and exhibited 387
XIX Of the re-examining the Witritsses, and the pnni.>hiuent of
false Witnesses 389
XX How the Prisoner hath a copy of the evidence, withunt the
names of the "'^'itnesses 390
XXI How the articUs and witnesses for the Criminal are pro- duced and examined 394
XX J I .... Cf the defence of the Criminals , 395
XXI f I.... How the Inquisitor may be rejected 396
XX » v.... Or the appeal from the Inquisitor •• 397
XXV How they pro<'eed ugainst such wJ.o make their escape. . . 399
XXVI.. . . How the p)ocess is ended in the lnquJs.Uion 400
XXVIl How the process is ended by absolution •• 403
XXVIII. .. How the process against a person defamed for heresy is
ei-ded by canonical pixgation 405
XXIX • • . . How the process is ended by torture 407
XXX How the process is ei.dcd agf.inst a person of heresy, as
also against one both suspected and defamed i..<> 426
XXXI- . . . How the process against an licretic confessed and penitent
endii, and first of abjuration 431
XXXII... Of the punishment and wholesome penances injoined such
as abjure 433
XXXIII.. When and how far any one is to be admitted to penance.. . 439
XXXIV •• How the process ends against a relapsed penitent 443
^XXV... How the process ends against an impenitent Heretic and
impenitent relapse • 446
XXXVI... How the process ends against a negative Heretic convicted 450 XXXVII. . How the process ends against a fugitive Heretic 452
XXX VIII. Of the method of proceeding against the dead***. 455
XXXIX.. . Of the manner of proceeding against houses 457
XL How the sentences are pronoimced, and the condemned
persons delivered over to the secular arm 458
XLI Of an act of Faith. 463
XLII. . • . Memoirs of Persons who have suffered the terrors of Inqui- sitorial Persecution 493
XLIII.... On the re-establishment of the Inquisition in Spain, by the
decree of Ferdinand VII . • • • • 630
%/W%V%'V«.X^^/«.
Directions to the Binder.
The Standard of the Inquisition to face the Title.
The Table of the Inquisition to face Page 246.
The Procession of the Inquisition for the burning of Heretics to face Page 472.
J Catalogue of the Axdliors out of whose writings the history of the INQUISITION is principally drawn.
DIRECTORIUM Inquisitorum Fr. Nicolai Eymerici Ord- Praed. cum Commenlariis Francisci Pcgnae J V. D. Romance in aedibus populi Romani, 1535, fol. Eymericus was born at Girona in Catalonia, was a Predicant Monk, and flourished in the papacy of Urban V and Gregory XL and in the reign of Peter IV. King of Aragon. He was made In- quisitor General about the year 1358, and succeeded Nicholas Rosell^ He was made a Cardinal, An. 1356- He died Jan. 4, 1393, having executed the ofiice of the Holy Inquisition for forty-four years together.
Pegna was a Spaniard, of the Kingdom of Aragon, made Auditor of the Roman Rota, in the room of Christopher Robusterius,Oct 14, 1588. He was advanced to the Deanery of the same court, June 9, 1604, in the room of Cardinal Jerom Pamphilii, and died in that Deanery, Aag. 21, 1612.
Francisci Pegnae Instructio, seu Praxis Inquisitorum, cum annotatio- nibus Caesaris Carense. Lugduni 1669, post Carenas tractatum de Offi- cio SS- Inquisitionis. fol.
Guidonis Fulcodii, qucestiones quindecim ad Inquisitores; cum anno* tationibus Caesaris Carens, ibid. Fulcodius was a Cardinal, and after- wards Pope, by the name of Clement IV.
Lucerna Inpuisitorum Fr. Bernardi Comensis, cum annot. Francisci Pegnae, impressa Romas cum licentia Superiorum, ex officina Bartholo- maei Grassi, 158 1,
Jacobus Simancas de Catholicis Inslitutionibus. Simancas was Bishop of Badajoz in the kingdom of Portugal, and province of Estremadura.
Joannes a Royas, de haereticis corumque impia intentione et credu- litate. Royas was a Licentiate of the Canon and Civil Law, Inquisitor of heretical pravity at.Valence in Spain.
Zenchini Ugolini tractatus de haereticis : cum additionibus Fr. Gamilli Campegii. Z. Ugolinus was a law) er of Rimini in Italy.
C. Campegius was a Predicant Friar, and Inquisitor General in all the territories of Ferrara.
ConradusBrunus de haereticis and schismaticis, lib. 6.
Forma procedendi contra haereticos, seu inquisitor de haeresi, ct in causa hajresis. Autor crcditur Joannes Calderinus.
Hi quinque autores exstant in Parte IL Tom. XI. tractatum ill ustrium Juris consuUorum, quaeagit, de judiciis criminalibus S. Inquisitionis.
Xvi A CATALOGUE OF AUTHORS, &C.
Ludovicus a Paramo, de Origine et Progressu Officii Sanctas Inqui- sitionis, ej usque dignilate et utilitate. Madriti,ex Typographia Regia, CIO ID xciix. fol. Ludovicus a Paramo was archdeacon and canon of Leon, a city in Spain, and inquisitor of the kingdom of Sicily.
Antonii de Sousa, Aphorismi Inquisitorum. Lugduni, apud Anisson. 1069, 8vo. Sousa was a Portuguese of Lisbon, a Predicant Friar, Mas- ter of Divinity, and counsellor to the King and the tribunal of the su- preme Inquisition.
Caesaris Carenae, tractatus de Office Sanctissimae Inquisitionis, etmodo procedendi in causis fidei. Lugdoni apud Anisson, 1669, fol. Carena, D. D. was auditor of Cardinal Comporeus, Judge Conservator, Counsel- lor, and Advocate Fiscal of the Holy Office.
Reignaldi Gonsalvi Montani Sanctas Inquisitionis Hispanicae artes aliquot detectae ac palam traductae. Heidelbergae 1597, 8vo.
Pauli Servitae Historia Inquisitionis, prassertim prout in Dominio Veneto observatur.
Relation de I'lnquisition de Goa, 12mo. a Paris, 1687. I Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne, 12mo. a la Haye, 1691.
Abraham! Bzovii Annalium Ecclesiasticorum Baronii Continuatio, Antwerpiae, 1617.
Annales Ecclesia^tici ex Tomis octo ad unum pluribus auctum rc- dacti; Autore Odorico Raynaldo. Romae ex Typographia Varesii, 1657. Raynaldus was of Treviso, Presbyter of the Congregation of the Oratory.
Compendium Bullarii Flavii Cherubini. Lugdini apud Laurentium Durand, 1624, 4to.
Lucae Wadding! Annales Miaorum, in quibus res onines trium Ordi- num Franciscanorum tractanur. Lugduni, 1625, fol.
Jacobi Augusti Thuani Historia sui temporis.
Jacobus Usserius Archiepiscopus Armachanus de Successione Eccle- siarum in Occidentis praesertim partibus-
Giber Sententiarum InpuisitionisTholosana.
Liber Catenatus, MS. inter archiva Capituli S. Salvatoris, Trajecti ad Rhenum.
Glossariura ad Scriptores mediae et insimse Latinitatis Carol! du Fresne Domini du Cange. Lutet. Paris, 1678, fol.
Domini Maori Hierolexicon. Romac, 1677, fol.
HISTORICAL SURVEY
OF
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH,
The history of that Ecclesiastical Court, denominated by a strange and imposing perversion, The Holy Inquisition, the very name of which has excited the terror of thousands and tens of thousands, and whose existence leaves a lasting stain upon the annals of mankind, so naturally connects itself with the history of the church, from whose corruptions this prodigious evil grew, that it may be proper to take a rapid survey of the progress and corruption of Christian doctrine during the early ages, in order more correctly to exhibit the gradual advances of that ecclesiastical domination, which at length assumed an universal sway ; impiouslv affecting to dispose of heaven and earth, and in its rage and cruelty adopting, in the most sanguinary of tribunals, a system of despotism, the most horrible that has ever afflicted the imagination or wrung the hearts of human kind — whose records ought never to be forgotten, but be trans- mitted from generation to generation, as a perpetual warning to governments and people, when surrendering those rights which are inseparable from the well-being of man, either as an individual, or as connected in the bonds of friendship and society.
That gracious dispensation of mercy wliich the sacred scrip- tures have denominated " The glorious gospel of the blessed God,"* whilst it has claims of eternal obhgation upon tlie mind
■ 1 Tim. i, 11.
5 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
of man, being accompanied by an evidence and influence pecu- liarly its own, having been prefigured by ancient ceremonies, foretold by prophets, introduced by miracles, sealed by sacred blood, and secured by the oath of an unchanging God — has by its promulgation, gathered in the present world a church out of every nation, " kindred, tongue, and people," ^ against which " the gates of hell shall not prevail;"' a church which has continued, and will continue, to the end of time, under the guardian eye of him who will at length "present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,''** to abide in his presence and go no more out for ever.<= This gospel of the grace of God, so universal in its applica- tion, commanding, yea, entreating " all men every where to repent"^ and "be reconciled to God,"? is in its preaching compared unto a net cast into the sea, •» and gathering thereout a promiscuous multitude of every sort both bad and good. The church of Christ, therefore, in an extended sense, comprehends all those who are thus gathered from the world, to an external profession of its doctrines — in a restricted import it admits only those who appear to be influenced by divine precepts. The term is here employed in its greatest latitude, whilst the History of the Christian Church, according to ex- ternal profession, is briefly considered.
The history of the Christian church during the apostolic age is happily so much within the reach of every reader, as to ren- der it unnecessary to advert to its infant state, or to dwell at - large upon its most early progress ; a remark or two will there- fore suffice in rapidly passing over that instructive period which is embraced by the sacred records.
When the divine Author of the Christian faith had accom- plished the gracious designs of his mission on the earth, and was about to ascend up into heaven, he commanded his disci- ples to promulgate his doctrine in the following words : " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creok- iurer^
,* Rev. V, 0. ^ Matt, xvi, 18. * Ephes. ▼, 27. « Rev. iii, 12.
' Act* xvii, 20. 6 2 Cor. v, 20. "» Matt, xiii, 47,
' Mark xvi, 15.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 8
Before, however, they proceeded to the execution of this high command, the Saviour instructed his disciples to wait certain days at Jerusalem, that they might receive the commu- nication of "power from on high;"^ and when the day of Penteco§t was fully come, he displayed upon them that trans- cendant miracle The Gift of Tongues, a gift which, whilst it filled the gazing multitude with wonder, enabled " Par- thians and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopo- tamia, and in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia, about Cyrene, and strangers at Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, to hear them speak, in their own tongue, the wonderful works of God." ^
This gift of the Holy Spirit, besides the communication of language, was also productive of other great effects on the minds of the disciples.
In consequence of that darkness which sin has introduced into the moral world, they were Hable to mistake the nature of their embassy, and even did enquire of the Messiah after he had risen, if he would now restore again the Jewish poHty; " but his answer referred them to this great event, the enlighten- ing of this Holy Spirit — the promise of the Father — the Guide into all Truth.
The disciples of Jesus Christ, after he had accomplished the period of his ministry on earth, were to be deprived of his personal protection, of his counsels, and his visible presence; and in the view of this he consoled them in the most tender language," whilst he assured them they should receive this sacred Spirit, the comforter to abide with them for ever. The disciples were also subject lo human fears, and often felt a dis- position to compromise somewhat for their personal safety. Hence, when the Saviour spake of his death, Peter replied," Be it far from thee. Lord."" ° When his enemies actually laid their hands on him, notwithstanding they had seen him walk upon the sea, still with a word the raging storm, and raise the dead, we behold them deserting him in his greatest danger; and
* Luke xxiv, 49, ' Acts ii. 9. "* Acts i, 6. " John xiv.
• Matt, xvi, 22. B g
4 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
Peter, regardless of the strong assurances he had given to his divine Master of attachment, even thrice denied the knowledge of his person. ? But what a change is observable in their his- tory when they are influenced by the Holy Spirit. Now, in- stead of flying from personal danger, they can use this language to a threatening judicature, " Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye : for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." ^ Now they rejoice when counted worthy to sufi*er for his name who endured for them the "contradiction of sinners against himself" ■■ No longer expecting an earthly kingdom, and a heaven below, they glory in tribulation, and fix their eyes on an immortal crown.
As there may probably be occasion to advert to such a topic, it may not be amiss here to enquire a httle into the manner in which the Redeemer qualified his disciples for the exercise of the ministry ; because it is fairly to be presumed, that only those who follow in their footsteps can lay claim to a similarity of character, for " by their fruits ye shall know them." In their conduct before the world then the Saviour appears in the whole tenour of his doctrine, as well as by his own bright ex- ample, to have taught them to be inoffensive ; — this appears to have been his greatest lesson — to suffer, but to do no wrong, *« Love," said he " your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which des- pitefully use you and persecute you."* " Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves ; be ye, therefore, wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." * Far from being authorised to make use of fleshly weapons in their spiritual warfare, they were for warned " that all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword," " and instead of indulging in furi- ous anger against those who did not receive the doctrines they advanced, the most serious step enjoined was, an act of the most significant yet affectionate separation, " Go your ways out into the streets and say. Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you ; notwith-
• Luke xxii, 57. ^ Acts iv, 19. ' Heb. xii, .3. • Mat. v, 44.
* Mat. X, 16. • Mat. xxTJ, 62.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 5
Standing, be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you"'
If these then were the instructions which proceeded from the lips of Jesus Christ, relative to the spirit and temper in which he would have the ministry of his word exercised ; by what strange concurrence and perversion could it arise, that persecU" tion should be adopted in the propagation of the gospel. To employ external violence, in order to produce conviction of die mind, must be considered an absurdity of the grossest kind : and to assert that a religion introduced to the world by the angehc song of, " peace on earth, good-will towards men," sanctions the use of fire and sword for its promotion, involves a contradic- tion as glaring as to affirm, that the sun can cause darkness, or the showers of heaven drought : it cannot be — it is not in the gospel of Christ, that a sanction can be found for such a prac- tice. Every species of persecution, as well as " all the wars and massacres, which have usually been styled religious, and with the entire guilt of which Christianity has been very unjustly loaded, have been altogether owing to causesof a very different nature — to the ambition, the resentment, the avarice, the rapa- city of princes and conquerors (or of lesser tyrants) who assum- ed the mask of religion, in order to veil then* real purposes, and who pretended to fight (or persecute) in the cause of God and his church, when they had in reahty, nothing else in view, than to advance their power and authority, or extend their dominion." ^ But to return.
The scriptures take up the history of the church and carry it on directly or indirectly, to about the year QQ^ at which pe- riod the doctrines of the gospel had been taught and received in a large portion of the then known world : according to credible records, it appears to have been preached in Idumea, Syria, and Mesopotamia, by Jude ; in Egypt, Mamorica, Mauritania, and other parts of Africa, by Mark, Simeon and Jude; in Ethiopia, by the Eunuch and Matthias ; in Pontus, Galatia, and the neighbouring parts of Asia, by Peter ; in the territories of the seven Asiatic Churches, by John ; in Parthia, by Mat- thew ; in Scy thia, by Philip and Andrew ; in the northern
" Luke X. 11. f Poiteus' Lectures, vol. 1. 375.
6 HISTORICAL SPRVEY OF
and western parts of Asia, by Bartholomew ; in Persia, bj Simeon and Jude; in Media, Carmania, &c. by Thomas; from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum, by Paul ; as also in Italy, and probably in Spain, Gaul, and Britain, and we are told, that the disciples, upon the persecution which arose about Stephen were scattered abroad, and " went every where preaching the word/'*
This extension of doctrine, however, was unattended by •popularity, by the applause, or even the approbation of the world ; the profession of Christianity, at this early period, being pure and scriptural, caused, as it will ever do, offence; the Christians were, in consequence, a sect every where spoken against, and the time also soon arrived, when, according to their Lord's prediction, those who killed them thought that they did God service*. The Apostle Paul viewed the approach of this event, in reference to hunself, with that steady confidence which truth alone can inspire, when, addressing his son Timothy, he said, " I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand ; I have fought a good fight, I have finish- ed my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing^. The apostle's death took place, according to the most credible records, shortly after; he having been condemned in the 12th year of the reign of Nero, the same year in which Peter, according to Jerome, was sacrificed.
In the year 64, Nero, whose infamous conduct was too gross here to admit of a description, and who had exhausted all the sources of criminal pleasure, at length sought his gratifi- cation in the sufferings of others, and let loose his fury upon the Christians. Tacitus acquaints us with the pretended causes of the hatred which he displayed against them, and which produced the first general persecution. — That inhuman empe- ror, having, as was supposed, set fire to the city of Rome ; to avoid the imputation of this wickedness, transferred it to the
' AcU viii, 4. * John xvi, 2. ► 2 Tim. iv, 6.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. (
Ciiristians ; and after informing us that they were ah-eady and justly abhorred on account of their " many and enormous crimes,'' «= Tacitus thus proceeds. " The author of this name (Christians) was Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius, was exe- cuted under Pontius Pilate procurator of Judea. The pestilent superstition was for a while suppressed, but it revived again and spread not only over Judea, where this evil was first broached, but reached Rome, whither from every quarter of the earth is con- stantly flowing whatever is hideous and abominable amongst men, which is there readily embraced ^nd practised. First, there- fore, Mere apprehended such as openly avowed themselves to be of that sect; then by themAvere discovered an immense multitude, and all were convicted, not of the crime of burning Rome, but of hatred and enmity to mankind. Their death and tortures were aggravated by cruel derision and sport ; for they were either covered with the skins of wild beasts, and torn in pieces by devouring dogs, or fastened to crosses, or wrapped up in combustible garments, that when the day light failed, they might, hke torches, serve to dispel the darkness of the night. Hence towards the miserable sufferers, however guilty and deserving the most exemplary punishment, compassion arose, seeing they were doomed to perish, not with a view to the pub- lic good, but to gratify the cruelty of one man."'^ Shortly after, however, the period we are now contemplating, the wretch- ed emperor Nero, unable to bear the load of disgrace which popular opinion heaped on his existence, destroyed himself,
* How frequently has this early pattern of ignorant intolerance, been imitated by those who sustain a far different character, and how often has an nndiscriminating zeal represented as odious those opinions which a little attention would have shewn in a very different point of light ; enquiring a little further into these heavy charges, we find these " many and enormous crimes," consisted in their being called Christians and refusing to offer sacrifice to idols.
* Learned men are not altogether agreed concerning the persecution of Nero, some confining it to the city of Rome, while others represent it as hav- ing raged throughout the whole empire. The latter opinion, which is also the most ancient, is undoubtedly to be preferred, as it is certain that the laws enacted against the Christians, were enacted against the whole body, and not against particular churches
B 4
S HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
A. D. 68, — which put an . end to this horrid and destructive butchery.
In the mean time, the Jews at Jerusalem were filling up the measure of their iniquities, and preparing themselves for that heavy vengeance which fell on them, in the utter destruction of their city and temple, and the slaughter and dispersion of their nation, described at large, by Josephus, when nearly one million and a half of that devoted people, perished by famine and the sword.
The persecution of Nero was succeeded by another under Domitian, when the apostle John was banished to Patmos, where he wrote the book called his Revelation, A. D. 96. During this century of the church, though doubtless the most pure, several corruptions of doctrine were introduced, the principal of which was that of those Judaising teachers, who, desirous of uniting the Jewish with the Christian dispensation, asserted that unless the believers in Jesus were circumcised, and observed the law of Moses, they could not be saved. These notions, so entirely subversive of the very basis of the Gospel, received the pointed attention of the apostles, and on another occasion drew forth the invaluable epistle of Paul to the Galatian churches. Some misguided persons also were desirous of uniting the eastern philosophy with the gospel; whilst many, in a spirit of pride and vain glory, endeavoured to ele- vate themselves even above the apostles^ as alluded to in the epistles of Paul and of John; and from hence arose the several sects of the Gnostics, Cerinthians, Nicolaitans, Naza- renes, Ebeonites, &c. to the disturbance of the church and its unity. With regard to modes of worship and ceremonies, during this century, it is impossible to speak with certainty : the Scriptures alone are the authentic record.
The second century commences with the third year of the emperor Trajan. He ascended the throne of the Caesars in the year 98, and conferred the government of the province of Bithynia upon Pliny, whose character has been styled one of the most amiable in all pagan antiquity. The persecuting laws against the Christians were still in force ; but Phny hesi- tated in applying them, until he had consulted Trajan on the
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 9
subject, which he did by a letter' written about the year 106 or 107. This letter, is a very valuable fragment of anti- quity, because it affords authentic information respecting the conduct of the early Chiistians and their judges. It is as fol- lows:
C Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, wishes health.
Sire, It is customary with me to consult you upon every doubtful occasion; for where my own judgment hesitates, who is more competent to direct me than yourself, or to in- struct me where uninformed? I never had occasion to be present at any examination of the Christians before I came into this province : I am therefore ignorant to what extent it is usual to inflict punishment, or urge prosecution. I have also hesitated whether there should not be some distinction made between the young and the old, the tender and the robust; whether pardon should not be offered to penitence, or whether the guilt of an avowed profession of Christianity can be expiated by the most unequivocal retraction; whether the profession itself is to be regarded as a crime, however innocent in other respects the professor may be ; or whether the crimes attached to name must be proved, before they are made liable to punishment.
In the mean tmie, the method I have hitherto observed with the Christians, who have been accused as such, has been as follows. I interrogated them — Are you Christians.-^ If they avowed it, I put the same question a second and a third time, threatening them with the punishment decreed by the law ; if they stiU persisted, / ordered them to be immediately exe- cuted; for of this I had no doubt, whatever was the nature of their religion, that such perverseness and inflexible obsti- nacy certainly deserved punishment. Some that were infected with this madness, on account of their privilege as Roman citizens, I reserved to be sent to Rome, to be referred to your tribunal.
In the discussioa*? of this matter, accusations multiplying, a diversity of cases occurred. A schedule of names was sent
10 ^ HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
me, by an unknown accuser ; but when I cited the persons before me, many denied the fact, that they were or ever had been Christians, and they repeated after me an invocation of the Gods, and of your image, which for this purpose 1 had ordered to be brought, with the statues of the other deities. They performed sacred rites with wine and frankincense, and execrated Christ; none of which things, I am assured, a real Christian can ever be compelled to do. These, therefore, I thought proper to discharge. Others named by an informer, at first acknowledged themselves Christians, and then denied ic ; declaring that though they had been Christians, they had re- nounced their profession, some years ago, others still longer, and some even twenty years ago- All these worshipped your imao-e, and the statues of the Gods, and at the same time execrated Christ.
And this was the account which they gave me of the na- ture of the religion they once had professed, whether it deserves the name of crime or error ; namely, that they were accustomed, on a stated day, to assemble before sun-rise, and to join together in singing hymns to Christ as to a Deity, binding themselves as v/ith a solemn oath, not to commit any kind of wickedness, to be guilty neither of theft, robbery, nor adultery ; never to break a promise, or to keep back a deposit when called upon. Their ^ worship being concluded, it was their custom to separate, and meet together again for a repast, promiscuous indeed, mthout any distinction of rank or sex, but perfectly harmless ; and even from this they desisted, since the publication of my edict, in which, agreeably to your orders, I forbad any societies of that sort.
For further information, I diought it necessary, in order to come at the truth, to put to the torture two females who were called deaconesses. But 1 could extort from them nothing, except the acknowledgement of an excessive and depraved superstition, and therefore, desisting from further investigation, I determined to consult you, for the number of culprits is so great, as to call for the most serious deliberation. Informations are pouring in against multitudes of every age, of all orders, and of both sexes ; and more will be impeached, for the con-
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 11
tagion of this superstition hath spread, not only through cities, but villao-es also, and even reached the farm-houses.
I am of opinion, nevertheless, that it may be checked, and the success of my endeavours hitherto forbids despondency ; for the temples, once almost desolate, begin to be again fre- quented; the sacred solemnities, which had for some time been intermitted, are now attended afresh ; and the sacrificial victims, which once could scarcely find a purchaser, now ob- tain a brisk sale. Whence I infer, that many might be re- claimed, were the hope of pardon on their repentance abso- lutely confirmed."
Trajan to Pliny.
" My dear Pliny,
" You have done perfectly right in managing as you have the matters which relate to the impeachment of the Christians. No one general rule can be laid down, which will apply to all cases; these people are not to be hunted up by informers; but if accused and convicted let them be exe- cuted: yet with this restriction, that if any renounce the pro- fession of Christianity, and give proof of it, by offering sup- phcations to our Gods, however suspicious their past conduct may have been, they shall be pardoned on their repentance. \But anonymous accusations should never be attended to, since it would be establishing a precedent of the worst kind, and altogether inconsistent with the maxims of mj govern-
These letters, whilst they afford a very pleasing view of the exemplary conduct displayed by the first Christians, at the same time shew the futihty of mere human accomplishments, when a chief magistrate, an emperor, of a refined people, could establish, as an act of justice, the taking away of hfe for the profession of a name unconnected with any personal impropriety.
Before proceeding further in this part of the subject, a rery ivatursj curiosity demands, how it happened that the
12 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
Romans, who were troublesome to no nation on account of their rrligion, and who suffered even the Jews to hve un- der their own method of worship, treated the Christians alone with such severity? This important question seems still more difficult to be solved when re is considered, that the excel- lent nature of the Christian religion, and its admirable tendency to promote the public welfare of the state, from the private fehcity of the individual, entitled it in a singular man- ner to the favour and protection of the reigning powers. One of the principal reasons of the severity with which the Romans persecuted the Christians, notwithstanding these considerations, seems to have been the abhorrence and contempt with which the latter regarded the religion of the empire; which was so intimately connected with the form, and indeed with the very essence of its political constitution. For though the Romans gave an unlimited toleration to all religions, which had nothing in their tenets dangerous to the commonwealth, yet they would not permit that of their ancestors, which was estabhshed by the laws of the state, to be turned into derision, nor the people to be drawn away from their attachment to it. ® In the doctrines of the gospel, the axe was laid to the root of the tree, and the» destruction of every false way was both unavoidably and intentionally the consequence. Besides, whilst the introduction of the Gospel had this effect, it supplied no gaudy objects in the service it enjoined ; its followers were instructed to worship the one supreme God of heaven, distin- guished from idols, in spirit and in truth; to be ready to the endurance of any temporal evil; to maintain a constant war- fare with unholy and corrupt propensities; and to fix their final hopes in steady confidence beyond the grave. Such a religion was as httle attractive to the hcentious Roman as it was to the Jew, involved in misunderstood ceremonies, and therefore both its professors and its teachers were alike the objects of disgust to each; and hence it is no wonder that they loaded them with the grossest imputations, which were too readily received by the unthinking multitude. They
.* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. 74. '
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 1$
even ciiarged them with Atheism, and asserted that all the wars, tempests, and diseases which the nation suffered, were judgments from the angry Gods upon them, because they permitted the Christians to live. Hence under one reign, upon being proved Christians, or confessing themselves such, they were immediately dragged away to execution; unless they gave up their profession, execrated the sacred name of Chi'ist, and fell down to stocks and stones, to which they were also instigated by inliuman tortures.
Among the persons who suffered under Trajan, was Igna- tius, pastor of the church at Antioch. Trajan, making a short stay at that place, and about to enter on the Parthian war, the occurrence of an earthquake, which then took place, and which was very destructive in its consequences, appears to have roused his hatred against the Christians, and he ordered Igna- tius to be seized, and sent to Rome, where he was exposed in the theatre, and devoured by mid beasts.
The persecution under Trajan, commonly called the third, appears to have continued during his whole reign, and to have been temiinated only by his death, an event which took place, A. D. 117.
Adrian, who succeeded Trajan, manifested a degree of mildness compared with what his predecessors had done ; and, in consequence, the church enjoyed a sort of interval in suffer- ing: yet, notwithstanding, there did continue a persecution denominated the fourth. After a reign of twenty-one years, Adi-ian was succeeded by x\ntoninus Pius and Marcus Aurehus Antoninus; the former of whom denounced capital punish- raent against those who should in future accuse the Christians without being able to prove them guilty of any crime; but the latter issued edicts, in consequence of which the vilest rabble were allowed to be adduced as evidence against the followers of Jesus ; and the Christians were put to the most barbarous tortures, and condemned to meet death in the most cruel forms, notwithstanding their perfect innocence and per- severing solenm denial of those horrid crimes laid to their chai'ge. ' This, which is called the fifth persecution, induced
f Mosheim Ecc. Hist. vol.«i. ICO-l.
14 HISTORrcAL SURVEY 6T
Justin Martyr to write his first Apology, which he presented to the emperor.
That distinguished man, Poly carp, bishop of Smyrna, whom Usher has laboured to shew, was the angel of the church of Smyrna, addressed by Jesus Christ, Rev. ii. 8. was martyred in, or about the year 167. The account of his death is pre- served by Eusebius, and, omitting some extravagancies, is in substance as follows. The popular fury which never stays to en- quire or to discriminate, imputed to the Christians the crime of Atheism, because they refused to worship and sacrifice to idols. Hence the usual cry among the disorderly multitude became, " take away the Atheists," and after the destruction of many lesser persons, to this was joined, *' let Polycarp be sought for." Polycarp, far from imitating the rashness of those who threw themselves into the hands of their persecutors, took every lawful means for his personal safety, and retired, first to one village, and from thence unto another ; but the place of his retreat having been obtained by torture, from one of his domestics, he was taken. Eusebius relates that he might even then have escaped but he would not, saying, " the will of the Lord be done." Hearing that the officers were come to seize him, he came down from his chamber and conversed w^ith them, and all present admired his firmness, some saying, " is it worth while to apprehend so aged a person .?" Polycarp immediately ordered meat and drink to be set before the officers, as much as they pleased,. and having obtained one uninterrupted hour for prayer ; he mentioned and commended all whom he had ever known to God ; he was then set on an ass and led unto the City.— The Irenarch Herod and his father Nifcetes, meeting him, took him up into their chariot, and began to advise him, saying, " what harm is it to cry. Lord Caesar ! and to sacrifice and be safe ?" Polycarp was at first silent, but when they pressed him, he said, "I v'ill not follow your advice .?" finding, therefore, that they could not persuade him, they abused him, and thrust him out of the chariot, so that in faUing he bruised his thigh. But he still unmoved, went on cheerfully under the conduct of his guards to the stadium.
When he was brought to the tribunal there was a great
THE CHRISTIAK CHURCH. 15
tumult, as soon as it was generally understood that Polycarp was apprehended. The proconsul asked hhn if lie was Poly- cai-p, to which he assented. The former then began to exhort him. " Have pity on thy own great age !— Swear by the fortune of Caesar !— repent!— say. Take away the Atheists !" — Polycarp, with a grave aspect, beholding all the multitude, waving his hands to them, and looking up to heaven, said, " Take away the Atheists.'' The proconsul urging him, and saying, " Swear, and I will release thee J'— reproach Christ!" Polyciu-p said, *' Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath never wronged me ; and how can I blaspheme my king who hath saved me? The proconsul still urging him, he declared himself a Christian, and ready to instruct the pro- consul, if he would hear. The proconsul then said, " I have wild beasts, and will expose you to them, unless you repent.*" " Call them !" said Polycarp, " our minds are not to be changed." " I will tame your spirit by fire," said the former, " since you despise the fury of beasts.'' Polycarp rephed, " you threaten me Avith fire, which burns but for a moment, but are ignorant of that eternal fire which is reserved for the ungodly. But why do you delay .? — Do what you please." The proconsul was visibly embarrassed ; he sent, however, the herald to proclaim thrice in the vast assembly, " Polycarp hath professed himself a Christian!" upon which all the multi- tude, both Jews and Gentiles, demanded his blood. They im- mediately gathered fuel from the workshops and baths, and the fire being prepared, Polycarp laid aside his clothes, and said to those who would have secured him in the usual manner, " Let me remain as I am ; for he who giveth me strength to sustain the fire, will enable me to remain unmoved." After this, being put in the place appointed, he uttered a prayer, and remaining sometime alive in the midst of tlie flames, the confector was ordered to approach, and plunge his sword through his body. «
The year 180 closed this persecution; for in the reign of Commodus, who succeeded, and of Pertinax, who fol-
'« Blilner's Cli. Hist. vol. i. 209.
16 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
lowed in the government, a considerable degree of mildness prevailed. Pertinax, however, having been basely assassinated, was succeeded by Severus, who soon pursued the Christians with the same malignity as some of his predecessors had done, which caused great bloodshed in Asia, Eg)rpt, and the other provinces, as related by TertuUian and others, to the close of this century.
The corruption introduced in the first, continued and in- creased during the second century. A great and unwarranta- ble stress was laid on ceremonies, in order to gratify the mul- titude; but as in every age, to the injury of truth, by with- drawing the mind from an attentive observance of the pre- cepts of the Gospel, under a vain idea, that the observance of the former could supply the place of the latter. In addition to this, there appears to have been a great account of mysteries; by which it was insinuated, that the forms of worship had a hidden and peculiar power, considered in themselves, and apart from their apparent meaning ; a doctrine well calculated to inspire an ignorant veneration for forms as well as ministers, and which evi- dently might contribute to render Christianity, if not accepta- ble, at least not so disgusting, to the heathen, whose religion, if it may be so called, consisted in a multitude of mysterious observances. By means such as these, the Christian Pastors gradually obtained a power, which, as it may be supposed, they did not always rightly employ: hence arose dictation of creeds on one hand, and blind obedience on the other. While some, who acted in the character of ministers, suc- ceeded in persuading the people that the Christians had suc- ceeded to the rights and immunities of the Jewish priesthood, and that Christian bishops should be regarded as the high priests of that dispensation, as well as others in inferior grada- tions of authority ; a notion which produced for them both ho- nour and profit.
In this century also, the form of church government was adopted, which appeared to give a regularity and dependance to the whole body. Before this period, every church had its officers, and considered itself bound to no other, except by the ties of aifection ; but it was now established, that distinction
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 17
in dignity and authority was to be maintained ; and all the churches in a district or province, were to be confederated and assembled at intenals, to discuss the concerns of the whole; an arrangement which conveyed a large increase of power to the clergy, which, although it did not instantly, yet finally, produced immense mischiefs ; as in process of time, they lost sight of their original designation, and no longer considering themselves the delegates of the churches, asserted an authority to prescribe laws and issue commands. Ecclesiastical councils had, besides, the effect of destroying the equality of the churches, and their Bishops or Pastors ; and whilst in these public assemblies, degrees in dignity began to be observed, a spirit of domination was gradually introduced; a new order of Ecclesiastics, invented under the title of Patriarchs ; and finally, when ambition and the love of power had gained its height, the catalogue was rendered complete, by investing the bishop of Rome with supreme dignity, in the denomination of the Prince of the Patriarchs.
Of the peculiarities of doctrine in the second century, the tenets of the Ascetics form the distinguishing feature. — The doctrines of this sect consisted principally in austerities, which, in some cases, went near to the extinction of life ; for they considered themselves bound to practise fastings, watch- ings, labour, and self-denial, even to the exclusion of the most necessary comforts, and, by a perv^ersion the most destructive, sought happiness in solitary meditation, which, if it promoted in them the love of God, and that may be fairly doubted, can hardly be supposed conducive to the love of man, which is only to be expressed in a state of society, not of solitude.
Hence arose, in after times, a multitude of puerile observ- ances, which first beclouded, and afterwards almost extin- guished, every Christian doctrine, among the diversified orders of Monks, Nuns, &c. &c.
The reign of Severus terminated in the early part of the third century. He was succeeded by his son Caracalla ; who, during his government, which lasted six years, exercised great lenity towards the Christians: a feeling which appears to have existed until the government devolved on Maximin, who
18 ^HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
commenced the seventh persecution, and whose cruelty was of the darkest land. But he reigned only three years, and from h\s death to the succession of Decius, the church enjoyed com- parative quietness ; though in that outward peace she lost much of her internal purity, and exhibited tokens of degeneracy both in faith and practice. No sooner, however, had Decius as- cended the throne, than he caused persecution to fall on them with redoubled fury. He issued edicts, commanding the prae- tors, on pain of death, either to extirpate the whole of the Christians, or to compel them, by torment, to renounce their rehgion, and return to the pagan worship; and, in consequence, during the space of two years, multitudes of Christians were put to death in all the provinces. The eighth and ninth per- secutions bring down the history of the church to the close of the third century ; during which many of its brightest oma- naments sealed its doctrines with their blood.
In those intervals of peace which the church enjoyed in the course of this centmy, large additions were made to the number of converts, though, as has been already hinted with little ad- vantage to her purity, for an increase of ceremonies prevailed ; alterations were made in the manner of celebrating the Lord's Supper, by the introduction of a great degree of external ap- pearance and of splendour. Vessels of gold and of silver being used, whilst it was in itself considered so essential to salvation as even to be administered to infants. The doctrine of posses- sion by evil spirits was also maintained, and they were supposed to be expelled by baptism, on which account persons baptized were arrayed in white. Fasting also attained a particular credit in this period, and the sign of the cross in token of protection.
At the commencement of the fourth century, the church en- joyed toleration, but the Pagan priests, foreseeing probably the destruction of their emoluments, instigated Dioclesian and Ga- lerius Cassar, by whom a sanguinary persecution was begun in 303, which lasted eight years ; at length, however, Galerius being afflicted with a di'eadful disease, ordered these severities to cease, which closed the tenth persecution. The period now approaches when the civil authority united with the church under Constantine, and when matters of faith became the object
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 19
of civil government ; how far such an alliance comports with the declaration of Jesus Christ, respecting the nature of his kingdom,'' the reader may determine for himself; but its ill effects on the rights and habits of men, will, be amply apparent in the following pages.
When Constantine ascended the throne, he not only relieved the Christians from the anxieties of suffering, but he afterwards turned the stream of persecution, and issued edicts, forbidding every religion but the Christian.
- The first effect, resulting from the union of the church and the state under Constantine, appears to have been, that of producing a great degree of pride among the Clergy, who noAV knew no bounds to theii' ambition. Thus exhibiting the striking difference Avhich exists between a rehgion every where spoken against ; a profession of which must be made at the hazard of hfe, and one patronised by the civil power, and con- nected wdth fixed emoluments and splendid dignity. For ex- perience ever shews, that Christians become corrupt, in pro- portion as they become secular, and wherever the apostohcal inj unction i is exceeded, and the spirit of the world admitted in an eager pursuit of present objects, all the graces which adorn the Christian character become proportionally sullied.
The bishop of Rome, the superior city, soon began, by a very natural consequence, to claim ecclesiastical pre-eminence, and, as external authority had now become the adjunct of spiritual power, he exceeded all others in the splendour of the church over which he presided ; in the riches of his revenue and possessions ; in the number and variety of his ministers ; in his credit with the people, and in his sumptuous and splendid manner of living; and therefore when a vacancy occurred in this office it became the object of contention, and frequently of dis- turbance, in the city of Rome; a remarkable instance of which occurred in the year 366, when upon the death of Liberius, an election took place, and when two persons were chosen by opposite parties to the same office, a choice which each endea- voured to enforce by open violence, and the most hateful means. The splendour, which at this period attended the
* John x\iii. 36. ' I Tim. vi. 8
c a
20 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
bishop of Rome, therefore, was considerable, though nothing in compai'ison of that which belonged to the office in after times; for though they claimed, they liad not actually attained, supre- macy.
The arrangements made by Constantine respecting the civil and ecclesiastical government were of the following kind. To the four bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alex- andria was given a pre-eminence, probably under the title 'patri- arch ; answering to these in the civil government, he created four praetorian prefects ; next to these in dignity were the exarchs; then followed the metropolitans, having authority over a single province, after these were the archbishops, and beneath these the bishops : to these latter were at first added the cJiorepiscopi, or superintendants of country churches, an order however, soon after discontinued by the bishops, who found it to infringe on their power and authority. Constantine divided the adminis- tration into external and internal, — the internal relating to the forms of worship, the offices of priests, the conduct of the ecclesiastics, &c. he committed to the esclesiastical officers be- fore enumerated, and the decision of counsels, — the external administration embracing whatever related to the outward state of the church, he reserved to himself — In consequence of this arrangem-ent Constantine and his successors, convened councils in which they presided, appointed the judges in religious contro- versies, decided on the differences which arose between ministers and people, arranged the extent of ecclesiastical possessions, and punished crimes against the civil laws, by the ordinary judges.
It is not intended here to enter on the wide question of national estabhshments ; if it were, the present period would afford a powerful argument, on the impolicy and impiety of at- tempting to blend those things, which are ordained to be kept asunder; iron and clay, though they may be mingled, they can- not be united. Every thing is beautiful in its own order. If the civil magistrate bear rule without intrusion, he will protect those whom he governs, 'n\ the quiet enjoyment of then- rights, as men ; taking proper care for the punishment of such " evil doers" as infringe on those rights, according to the provisions of civil law. Like a wise physician, he will consider at large tlie
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 21
political body, and from time to time, apply those remedies which incidental derangements require. If he be himself a Christian, lie will rejoice in the privilege, and exhibit as an individual in his exalted station, the influence of Christian principles ; in the wisdom of his decisions, and the brightness of his example. From consistent views, studiously avoiding the assumption of an authority not his own, he will fear to touch the conscience, knowing that it is sacred, and accountable to one Being only in the universe, whose prerogative alone it is, " to search the heart and ti-y the reins of the children of men."
Constantine who probably had no apprehension of the irre- concileable nature of spiritual and temporal power, found how- ever the difficulty of drawing the line of separation, so that both in the fourth and fifth centuries, there are frequent instances of the emperors determining matters purely ecclesiastical, and likewise of bishops and councils, determining matters which re- late to civil government.
The emperor having now established his mixed government, soon felt his own dignity connected with that of the superior ecclesiastical officers, and having removed the seat of empire to Constantinople, a city which he had named after himself, and which he intended should become a second Rome ; permitted the bishop of Constantinople to advance in precedence, and in a council held at that city in 381, his pretensions were estabhshed, and he was placed by the third canon of that council, in the first rank after the bishop of Rome, a preference which not only occasioned the bitter hatred of the bishops of Alexandria, but at length produced those contentions between the bishops of Rome and Constantinople, which being carried on for many ages, ended at length in the separation of the Greek and Latin churches.
Wealth and power present the same strong temptations in every age. — If the way to these at one period lie through the field of war, we read of heroes and conquerors. If at another, through the shady paths of intellect, scholastic speculations become the subject of history ; but if only through the sacred portal of religion, the most disgusting objects are presented to our view, the pure principles of truth, are either distorted or
22 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
suppressed, and the temple of God becomes a den of thieves. As long, indeed, as man continues what he is, a compound of flesh and spirit, lie will always be subject to an overweening at- tachment to the things of the present life ; this is an infirmity which attends the Christian in every age. But there is a striking difference between a man who, from the operation of heavenly principles, keeps the world beneath him, using but not abusing it, and he who makes it the object of his worship. When by the union now contemplated, religion became the high road to state favour and worldly grandeur; the votaries of these began to crowd the court, and to study, with all their efforts, the external appearances of sanctity. Religion be- came the fashionable pursuit ; and all the powers of invention were soon pressed into service. Hence under one period one, and under another, a new species of puerility became substituted in the room of solid virtue : not indeed entirely to the exclusion of every good, because under the most utter wretchedness and debasiement God hath ever taken care to preserve unto him- self a seed to serve him.
After Constantine had arranged his state officers and church officers, a task of easy accomplishment among men accustomed to feel the terrors of heathen government, and who were elated with the hope of better times, he soon found a difficulty arise, for v/hich he had omitted to provide, and which has attended every similar institution; namely, that of producing Uniform- ity of Faith. "In an assembly of the Presbyters of Alex- andria, the bishop of that city, whose name was Alexander, expressing his sentiments respecting the nature of Jesus Christ, maintained, among other things, that he was not only of the same nature and dignity, but also of the same essence with the Father. This assertion was opposed by Arius, one of the Presbyters, a man of a subtle turn, and remarkable for his eloquence ; whether his zeal for his own opinions, or per- sonal resentment against his bishop, was the motive that influ- enced him is not very certain ; be this as it will, he first treated as false the assertion of Alexander, on account of its affinity to the Sabellian errors which had been condemned by the churchy and then running himself into the opposite extreme, he main-
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 23
tained that the Son was totally and essentially distinct from the Fatlier, — that he was the first and noblest of these beings, whom God the Father had created out of nothing, the instru- ment by whose subordinate operation the Almighty Father formed the universe, and therefore inferior to the Father both in nature aud dignity.''"^ These opinions, by the talent with which their author supported them, soon gained a number of adherents and produced a separation between Arius and Alex- ander. Constantine, who beheld the growing evil with anxious solicitude, finding the breach become wider and wider, he himself interposed, in the hope of re-uniting the dispXitants, and addres- sed letters to them at Alexaudria, exhorting them to lay aside their differences and be reconciled to each other; he declared, that after having examined the rise and progress of the dispute, he found that the differences between them, were not by any means such, as to justify furious contention ; he tells Alexander, that he had required a declaration of their sentiments respecting a silly empty question; — and Arius, that he had imprudently uttered what he should not even have thought of, or what at least, he should have kept secret in his own bosom, — that questions about such things ought not to have been asked ; if asked, should not have been answered: that they proceeded from an idle fondness for disputation, and were in themselves of so high and difficult a nature as that they could not be exactly comprehended, or suitably explained : and that to insist on such points before the people, could produce no other effect, than to make some of them talk blasphemy, and others turn schismatics. These efforts of the Emperor, however prudently directed, fail- ed of their desired effect; he found the evil too deeply rooted to be eradicated, and therefore, determined on calling in the assistance of the bishops in assembly ; — accordingly he issued letters to the bishops of all the provinces, and assembled the first general council of Nice, in Bithynia, A. D. 325 ; ' the total number of persons who sat in this council was about two thousand and fifty, tluree hundred and eighteen of whom were bishops ; — on the day appointed, this assembly met in a large
^ Mosheira Ecc. Hist. vol. i. 412. ' Euscbius Life of Con»tantiue, B. i. Ch 63. in Jones's Walden»e».
^M HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
room of the palace. The bishops ai\d clergy having taken then places, they remained standing, waiting the arrival of the em- peror. At length Constantine appeared, surrounded by his friends, (says Eusebius), like an angel of God, exceeding all his attendants, in size, gracefulness, and strength, dazzling all eyes with the splendour of his dress, but shewing the greatest humility in his manner of walking, gesture and behaviour, and having placed himself in the midst of the upper part of the loom near a low chair, covered with gold, did not sit down, till desired to do so by the fatliers. — When the assembly had taken their seats, Eustathius, patriarch of Antioch, rose and addres- sed the emperor, giving thanks to God on his account, and congratulating the church, on the prosperity brought about through him, and particularly on the subversion of the heathen worship. — The emperor then rose, and addressed the assembly in Latin, expressing his happiness at seeing them all met on so glorious an occasion, as that of amicably settHng their differences, which he said, had given him more concern than all his wars ; but having ended these, he desired nothing more than the setthng the peace of the church, and concluded, by recommend- ing it to them, to remove every cause of future distention.
That which now followed, however, could not have been very consonant to the pacific views of Constantine, for some of the bishops present, thinking this a favourable opportunity for promoting their separate interests, delivered into his hands letters of complaint against each other ; — these complaints were at first made by word, personally : but Constantine, requested they would put them into writing, and when they delivered them to him, he put the whole of them unopened into the fire, telling them, that it did not belong to him to decide on the dif- ferences of Christian bishops, and that the hearing of them, must be deferred until the day of judgment. Having thus been softened, in regard to their personal animosities, the assembly began to turn their attention to the object of their meeting together, and after a deliberation of more than two months, agreed upon a summary of matters to be believed, and which was thence denominated the Nicene Creed. As soon as this formulary had been assented to, it was transmitted to Rome,
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 25
>vhere it was confirmed in a council of two hundred and seventy- five bishops, in these words : "We confirm with oui* mouth, that whicli has been decreed at Nice, a city of Bithynia, by the three hundred and eighteen holy bishops, for tlie good of the , CuthoUc and Apostolic church, mother of the faithful; we anathematize all those, who shall dare to contradict the decrees of the great and holy council, which was assembled at Nice, in the presence of that most pious and venerable prince, the emperor Constantine :"" — to this all the bishops answered, " We consent to it." Thus was the authority of councils exalted above that of him from whom it was profissedly derived, a foundation laid for the unbounded influence of the clergy, the riglit of private judgment violated, and the world at large commanded to believe any thing, and at any time which the church ordained should be believed, a doctrine, it is true, without which no union of spiritual and temporal power can be supposed to exist, but which, when once established and FULLY acted upon, could not possibly fail to produce all that superstition, idolatry, grossness of mind, and cruelty, which characterizes so large a portion of ecclesiastical history, until the man of sin became fully revealed, exalting himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that at length he, as God, sat in the temple of God. ^
When Constantine and his clergy had, according to their own ideas, overcome this radical difficulty in their mixed go- vernment, by the formation of a creed, which should produce unifonnity in this new and complex body, the next step before them was to procure its universal reception, and as argument cannot be supposed to have any place with dictation, the most obvious, and indeed the only method by which this end could be obtained was that of civil penalty, that those who refused to believe might be compelled to suffer. Constantine at first wrote letters enjoining the people to believe the creed now established, which he asserted was by the command of God, and framed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These let- ters were mild and gentle at the first ; but he was soon per- suaded by the bishops to exhibit great zeal for the extinction
•• 2 Tim. iii.
Og HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
of heresy, and issued edicts against those whom they repre- sented as its abettors, denominating them " enemies of truth, destructive counsellors, Sec." forbidding their public meetmgs, and giving their places of assembly to the church. He banished Arius, and decreed that his books should be burnt; and that if any should dare to keep any one of them, as soon as this was proved he should suifer death !
Such were the difficulties, and such the conduct, of the first ruler who governed under the profession of Christianity, Constantine the Great ; " "a prince, whose character,'' says Gib- bon, " has fixed the attention and divided the opinions of mankind : his person as well as mind had been enriched by nature with her choicest endowments. His stature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful: in the dispatch of business his diligence was indefatigable ; and the active powers of liis mind were almost continually exercised in reading, writing, or meditating, in giving audience to ambassa- dors, or in examining the complaints of his subjects. The general peace which he maintained during the last foui'teen years of his life, was a period of apparent splendour rather than of real prosperity, and the old age of Constantine was sullied by the opposite yet reconcileable vices of rapaciousness and prodigality."^
l^he History of what is called the Chiistian Church from this time forward becomes a pretty uniform record of superstition, ambition, and fanaticism. After the time of Constantine many additions were made by the emperors and others, to the wealth and honours of the clergy ; and these additions were followed by a proportional increase of their vices and luxury, particu- larly among those who lived in great and opulent cities. The bishops opposing each other in the most disgraceful manner re-
" Constantine was chosen to the government, whilst in England with the Roman army. — It appears, he entertained a favourable opinion of Christia- nity, whether from a sincere conviction of its truth, or from political motives is doubtful.
The authenticity of the story of his conversion, by the vision of a lumi- nous cross appearing in the firmament bearing the inscription, *' In this conquer," has been much controverted and much doubted. * Gibbon's Rome, chap, xviii.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 27
specting the extent of their jurisdictions ; at the same time dis- regarding the rights of their inferiors, and imitating, in their manners and luxurious mode of hfe, the quahty of magistrates and princes. This conduct of the higher clergy soon infected the inferior classes ; and the ^mters of this period repeatedly censure and complain of the effeminacy of the deacons. The Presbyters and Deacons of the first orders began to aim at superior honours, and were offended at being on a level with others ; hence arose the invention of the titles Arch-Preshyter and Arch-Deacon.
The rivalry introduced between the bishops of Rome and Constantinople, in consequence of the attachment of the Emperor Constantine to the latter, has been before alluded to. In the 5th century the bishops of Constantinople having extended their authority over all the provinces of Asia, endeavoured to obtain still further dignities ; and in the council held at Chal- cedon, a. d. 451, it was resolved. That the same rights and honours conferred on the bishop of Rome were due to the bishop of Constantinople, on account of the equal dignity of the cities in which they presided ; and at the same time they con- firmed to the bishop of Constantinople the j urisdiction of the Asiatic provinces which he had assumed. These decisions considerably alarmed the bishop of Rome, who used every effort to establish his supremacy. The royal influence, how- ever, preponderated against him, and the bishops of Rome and Constantinople were declared equals.
Whilst the principal persons among the clergy were thus contending in the spirit of proud ambition, veiled indeed by the appearances of sanctity, the inferior orders did not fail to follow their example; and as religion now became the popular pursuit, a spirit of envy and emulation soon prevailed, which incUned men to endeavour to outrun each other in zeal and pious prac- tices ; hence inventions and austerities were introduced, which were well calculated to excite that vacant feeling in all ages, predominating in the multitude, which produces veneration in proportion as it ridicules the intellect. The most striking and the most lasting of these, or rather the vortex of all others.
28 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
is that which, about this period, made rapid progress in tlic monastic life, a style of existence disgraceful to religion and destructive to man.
" In the reign of Constantine, the Ascetics fled from a profana and degenerate world, to perpetual solitude or religious society, they resigned the use or the property of their temporal pos- sessions, established regular communities of the same sex and a similar disposition, and assumed the names of Hermits, Monhs, and Jfwhorites, expressive of their lonely retreat in a natural or artificial desert. They soon acquired the respect of the world which they despised, and the loudest applause was bestowed on this Divine Philosophy, which surpassed, with- out the aid of science or reason, the laborious virtues of the Grecian schools. The monks might indeed contend with the Stoics, in the contempt of fortune, of pain, and of death. The Pythagorean silence and submission were revived in their ser- vile discipline, and they disdained, as firmly as the Cynics themselves, all the forms and. decencies of civil society. The lives of the primitive monks were consumed in penance and solitude, undisturbed by the various occupations which fill the time, and exercise the faculties of reasonable, active, and social beings ; whenever they were permitted to step beyond the pre- cincts of the monastery, two jealous companions were the mutual guards and spies of each other's actions ; and after their return they were condemned to forget, or at least to suppress whatever they had seen or heard in the world : strangers who professed the orthodox faith were hospitably entertained in a separate apartment; but their dangerous conversation was restricted to some chosen elders of approved discretion and fidelity. Except in their presence the monastic slave might not receive the visits of his friends or kindred ; and it was deemed highly meritorious if he afflicted a tender sister by the obstinate refu- sal of a word or look. The monks themselves passed their lives without personal attachments, among a crowd which had been formed by accident, and was detained in the same prison by force or prejudice : a special licence of the abbot regulated the time and duration of their familiar visits ; and at their
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 39
silent meals they were enveloped in their cowls, inaccessible and almost invisible to each other. According to their faith and zeal they might employ the day which they passed in their cells, either in vocal or mental prayer , they assembled in the evening, and they were awakened in the night for the public worship of the monastery : the precise moment was determined by the stars, which are seldom clouded in the serene sky of Egypt, and a rustic horn or trumpet the signal of devotion, twice in- terrupted the vast silence of the desert.
The most devout or the most ambitious of the spiritual bre- thren renounced the convent as they had renounced the world. The fervent monasteries of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, were sur- rounded by a Laura^ a distant circle of solitary cells ; and the extravagant penance of the Hermits was stimulated by applause and emulation. They sunk under the painful weight of crosses and chains, and their emaciated hmbs were confined by collars, bracelets, gauntlets, and greaves, of massy and rigid iron : all superfluous encumbrance of dress they contemptuously cast away, and some savage saints of both sexes have been admired, whose naked bodies were only covered by their long hair. Tliey aspired to reduce themselves to the rude and miserable state in which the human brute is scarcely distingi'fshed above his kindred animals, and a numerous sect of Anchorites, derived their name from their humble practice of grazing in the fields of Mesopotamia with the common herd. They often usurped the den of some wild beasts, whom they aifected to resemble; they buried themselves in some gloomy cavern, which ai't or nature had scooped out of the rock, and the marble quarries of Thebais are still inscribed with the monu- ments of their penance. The mostjperfect hermits are supposed to have passed many days without food, many nights without sleep, and many years without speaking ; and glorious was he who contrived any cell or seat of a pecuhar construction which might expose him in the most inconvenient posture to the inclemency of the seasons. Among these heroes of the mo- nastic life the name and genius of Simeon Stylites have been immortalized by the singular invention of an aerial penance.
30 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
At the age of thirteen the young Syrian deserted the profes- sion of a shepherd, and threw himself into an austere monas- tery. After a long and painful noviciate, in which Simeon was repeatedly saved from pious suicide, he established his residence on a mountain, about thirty or forty miles to the east of Antioch. Within the space of a mandin or circle of stones, to which he had attached himself by a ponderous cliain, he ascended a column, which was successively raised from the height of nine to that of sixty feet from the ground. In this last and lofty station the Syrian anchorite resisted the heat of thirty summers, and the cold of as many winters. Habit and exercise instructed him to maintain his dangerous situation without fear or giddiness, and successively to assume the dif- ferent postures of devotion. He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude, with his outstretched arms in the figure of a cross, but his most familiar practice was, that of bending his meagre skeleton from the forehead to the feet; and a curious spectator after numbering twelve hundred and forty-four repetitions at length desisted from the endless count. The progress of an ulcer in his thigh might shorten, but it could not disturb, this celestial life ; and the patient hermit expired without descend- ing froiTi 1 's column.
A prince who should capriciously inflict such tortures would be deemed a tyrant ; but it would surpass the power of a tyrant to impose a long and miserable existence on the reluctant victims of his cruelty. This voluntary martyrdom must have gradually destroyed the sensibihty, both of mind and body; nor can it be presumed, that the fanatics who torment them- selves are sensible of any lively affection for the rest of man- kind. A cruel unfeeling temper has distinguished the monks of every age and country ; their stern indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal friendship, is inflamed by reli- gious hatred and their merciless zeal, has strenuously admi- nistered the Holy Office of the Inquisition.
The monastic saints were respected and ahnost adored by the pnnce and people. Successive crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India saluted the divine pillar of Simeon : the tribes
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 31
of Sai-acens disputed in arms the honour of his benediction ; the queens of Arabia and Persia confessed his supernatural virtue, and the angchc hermit was consulted by the younger Theodosius in the most miportant concerns of the church and state. His remains were transported from the mountain of Telenissa, by a solemn procession of the patriarch, the master- general of the east, six bishops, twenty- one counts or tribunes, and six thousand soldiers ; and Antioch revered his bones as her glorious ornament and impregnable defence. The fame of the apostles and martyrs was gradually eclipsed by these recent and popular anchorites. The Christian world fell prostrate before their shrines, and the miracles ascribed to their relics exceeded, at least in number and duration, the spiritual ex- ploits of their lives. But the golden legend of their lives was embellished by the artful credulity of their interested brethren, and a believing age was easily persuaded, that the slightest caprice of an Egyptian or a Syrian monk had been sufficient to interrupt the eternal laws of the universe. The favourites of heaven were accustomed to cure inveterate diseases with a touch, a word, or a distant message, and to expel the most obstinate daemons from the souls or bodies which tliey possessed. They familiarly accosted oj: imperiously commanded the . Jons and serpents of the desert, infused vegetation into a sapless trunk, suspended iron on the surface of the water, passed the Nile on the back of a crocodile, and refreshed themselves in a fiery furnace. These extravagant tales which display the faction without the genius of poetry, seriously affected the reason, the faith, and the morals of the people. Their credu- lity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind, they cor- rupted the evidence of history and superstition, gradually ex- tinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science, p
The increase of the monks soon became prodigions to the south of Alexandria; the mountain and adjacent desert of Nitria were peopled by five thousand anchorites, and the tra- veller may still investigate the ruins of fifty monasteries, which were planted in that barren soil. In the Upper Theba is the
* Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. 27.
32 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
vacant island of Tabenne was occupied by Pachomius and four- teen hundred of liis brethren. That holy abbot successively founded nine monasteries of men, and one of women, and the festival of Easter sometimes collected fifty thousand religious persons, who followed his angelic rule of discipline. The stately and populous city of Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy had devoted the temples, the public edifices, and even the ramparts, to pious and charitable uses, and the bishop who might preach in twelve churches, computed ten thousand females and twenty thousand males of the monastic profcssicni.
The Egyptians who gloried in this marvellous revolution, were disposed to hope and to believe, that the number of the monks was equal to the remainder of the people. Athanasius^ introduced into Rome, the knowledge and practice of the mo- nastic life, and a school of this new philosophy, was opened by the disciples of Antony, a Syrian youth, whose name was Hila- rion, and who fixed his dreary abode on a sandy beach, bet wen the sea and a morass, about seven miles from Gaza. The austere penance, in which he persisted forty eight years, diffused a similar enthusiasm, and he was followed by a train of two or \hrnQ thousand Anchorets, whenever he visited the innumer- able monasteries of Palestine. The fame of Basil was celebrated in the East, and of Martin of Tours, in the West ; the former, having estabhshed monasteries along the borders of the black sea, and the latter in Gaul, two thousand of whose followers, attended his body to the grave. Every province, and at last every city,*^ was filled by these ignorant devotees, whose absurdities are scarcely to be equalled in the records of the grossest idolaters. — The admiration v/hich attended these de luded and deluding misanthropes, ended not with their extenu- ated existence ; — the multitude who gazed in silent wonder at their federal automaton, whilst in motion, felt this awe increased toward^t, when it had ceased to act; and hence, by means of the infatuated, or the designing, the relics of the saints attained enormous popularity.
Hence daily miracles were attributed to these Jioly reliqueSy
•J Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch, 37.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 33
and all the powers of eloquence resorted to, to shew the vast advantages of attending at their sepulchres. " With ardour," says Chrysostom, " let us fall down before their rehques, let us embrace their coffins — for these may have some power, since their bones have so great an one : and not only on their festivals, but on other days also, let us fix ourselves, as it were, to them, and intreat them to be our patrons.'' Again, " Let us dwell in their sepulchres, and fix ourselves to their coffins ; for not only their bones, but theii* tombs and their urns overflow with blessings." Basil also asserts, " That all who were pressed with any difficulty or distress, were wont to fly to the tombs of the martyrs, and whosoever did but touch their re- liques, acquii'ed some share of their sanctity." The connection between this veneration of sainted dust, and the emoluments of the church, was too obvious to escape regard. One hun- dred and fifty years after the glorious deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Vatican and the Ostian road were distinguished by their tombs, or rather by their trophies.
In the age which followed the conversion of Constantine, the emperor, the consuls and the generals of armies, devoutly visited the sepulchres of a tent-maker and a fisherman, and their venerable bones were deposited under the altars of Christ, on which the bishops of the royal city continually of- fered the unbloody sacrifice. The new capital of the eastern world, unable to produce any ancient and domestic trophies, was enriched by the spoils of dependent provinces. The bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy, had reposed near three hundred years, in the obscure graves from whence they were transported, in solemn pomp, to the church of the apostles, which the magnificence of Constantine had founded on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus. About fifty years after- wards, the same banks \tere honoured by the presence of Samuel, the judge and prophet of the people of Israel. His ashes, deposited in a golden vase, and covered with a silken veil, were delivered by the bishops into each others hands. The reliques of Samuel were received by the people, with the same joy and reverence which they would have shewn to the living prophet. The highways from Palestine to the gates of
o
54 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
Constantinople, were filled with an uninterrupted procession, and tlie emperor Arcadius himself, at the head of the most il- lustrious members of the clergy and senate, advanced to meet his extraordinary guest, who had always deserved and claimed the homage of kings. The example of Rome and Constanti- nople confirmed the faith and discipline of the catholic world. The honours of the saints and martyrs, after a feeble and inef- fectual murmur of profane reason, were universally established ; and in the age of Ambrose and Jerome, something was still deemed wanting to the sanctity of a Christian church, till it had been consecrated by some portion of holy reliques, which fixed and inflamed the devotion of the faithful.
In the long period of twelve hundred years, which elapsed
between the reign of Constantine and the reformation of Lu- es
ther, the worship of saints and reliques corrupted the pure and perfect simphcity of the Christian model, and some symp- toms of degeneracy may be observed even in the first genera- tion, which adopted and cherished this pernicious innovation. ''
In external government, Rome, who had sat mistress of the world, at length exhibited the symptoms of decay. Her em- perors had degenerated ; and the event declared, that a domi- nion obtained by the cruelties of the sword, was not to be upheld among a warlike people, by the trifling puerilities of superstition. An inscrutable Providence had permitted a few victorious men to satiate their ambition by the conquest of the world ; an event by which the whole was, in some degree, reduced to an ac- quaintance with the Greek and Roman tongues, and so pre- pared to understand a revelation, which was not to be made known by immediate communications among the separate na- tions severally, but through one people, by the ordinary mode of human language. Hence the decline of the Roman em- pire has been dated from the introduction of Christianity; for thus it was, and ever will be, that men, whether in defiance of the natural laws of society, by invasion and slaughter, or by the guileful insinuations of superstitious trea- chery, they depopulate the world, they are still subject to the
' Gibbon's Decliue and Fall, 27 Ch.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 35
controul of him wlio wliilst lie preserveth, in every nation, those who are actuated by his fear, causeth the wrath of man to praise him.
In the beginning of the fifth century, Rome was itself be- sieged by the Goths, who obtained possession of that centre of refinement ; overthrowing its stately edifices, and with a savage fury destroying those monuments of genius, the very wreck of which has been the admiration of posterity. This event took place during the reign of Honorius, who governed, at that time, the western part of the divided empire, and whose subjects, after a series of ineffectual contests, had the mortification to see nearly stript of his territories, and continuing the title, without the power of royalty. The capital was taken by the Goths. — The Huns were possessed of Pannonia ; the Alamani, Suevi, and Vandals were established in Spain ; and the Burgundians settled in Gaul. The feeble powers of Valentinian the Third, the successor of Honorius, were not calculated to restore to the Roman monarchs the empire they had lost. Eudocia, his wi- dow, and the daughter of Theodosius, married Maximus, and soon discovered that the present partner of her throne and bed, was the brutal murderer of the last. Incensed at his per- fidy, and resolved to revenge the death of Valentinian and lier own dishonour, she implored assistance from Genseric, king of the Vandals in Africa, who entered Rome, and plundered the whole of the city, except three churches. After the rapid and turbulent reigns of several of the emperors of the West, that part of the empire was finally subjugated in the year 476, by the abdication of Augustulus. The name of emperor sunk with the ruin of the em.pire; for the conquering Odoacer, general of the Heruli, assumed only the title of king of Italy.
The calamities, which in this century arose from the intolerant zeal of ecclesiastics were not less severe than the persecuting terrors of heathen idolaters ; and the sincere professors of the gospel were hence induced to look back, almost with regret, to a season, which, however unfavourable and perilous, found them united in one common cause, generally understood, in- stead of being divided into factions, disagreeing about points
36 HISTORICAL SUETEr OF
difficult to be conceived, and respecting which the difference frequently consisted not in the circumstance itseli', but in the terms used to define it. Alarmed at the ecclesiastical censure? which assailed all that presumed to differ in opinion, or even in expression, from the leaders of the church, the timid Christ- iaT» must have been afraid of conversing upon the subject of his faith; and the edict obtained from Honorius, by four bi- shops, deputed from Carthage, in 410, which doomed to death whoever differed from the Catholic faith, must have closed, in terror and silence, the trembling hps. During this century, the authority of the bishops of Rome made some remarkable pro- gress, and tlie appointment of their legates doubtless originated from motives extremely opposite from those wliich were avowed, the faith and peace of the church.*
An increasing reneration for the Virgin Mary, had taken place in the preceding century, and very early in this, an opinion was industriously propagated, that she had mani- fested herself to several persons, and had wrought consider- able miracles. Images, bearing her name, holding in her arms another, denominated the Infant Jesus, together with many others, were placed in a distinguished situation in the church, and, in many places, invoked with a pecuhar species of wor- ship, which was supposed to draw down into the images, the propitious presence of the persons whom they were de- signed to represent. A superstitious respect began also to take place, with respect to the bread consecrated at the Lord's Supper. Its efficacy was supposed to extend to the body, as well as to the soul; and it was apphed as a medicine in sick- ness, and as a preservative against every danger in travelling, either 1^ land or by sea. Private confession to a priest alone, was substituted in the room of pubhc penance. The method of singing anthems, one part of which was performed by the clergy, and the other by the congregation, which had been in- troduced into the churches of Antioch in the preceding century, was in this practised at Rome ; and in many churches it was the custom to perform these responses night and day, with-
• Gregory's Ch. Hist. toI. i. 2S4, 236,251.
THE CHRISTIAN' CHTECH. 37
out any interruption: different choirs of singers continually relieving each other.
Every splendid appendage, which had graced the heathen ceremonies, was now interwoven into the fabric of public wcx-- ship. During the extended period of Paganism, superstition had entirely exhausted her talents for invention ; so that, when the same spirit pervaded the minds of Christian professtM^ they were necessarily compelled to adopt the practices of theai predecessors, and to imitate their idolatry. That which had been formerly the test of Christianity, and the practice of which, when avoided, exposed the primitive believer to the utmost vengeance of his enemies, was now imposed as a Christian rite; and incense, no longer considered an abomi- nation, smoked upon every altar. The services of religkai were even in the day-time, performed by the light of tapers and flambeaux, and the most eminent fathers of the church, were not ashamed to propagate anv idle miraculous story, in their endeavours to estabhsh the faith of the multitude.
During the sixth century, the bishops of Rome, who had so often used the most strenuous efforts for pre-eminence, be- gan boldly to advance the claim of supremacy. They now insisted upon superiority, as a divine right attached to their see, which had been founded by St. Peter; and this doctrine, which had appeared to influence the conduct of some of the Romish bishops of the preceding century, was no longer con- cealed, or cautiously promulgated by those who possessed the see during the present period; and such was the extensive influence of their intrigues, that there were few among the potentates of the western empire, who were not, before the close of the succeeding centurv, subjected to the authority of the bishops of Rome.
The corrupted doctrines of religion received, if no improve- ment, no very considerable alteration in the sixth century.— The torments of an intermediate state were, indeed, loudly in- sisted on, to the ignorant multitude at this time, by the su- perstitious Gregorv, whom the Romish church has chosen to distinguish bv the appellation of Great. This prelate is sup- posed by some to have laid the foundation of the modem doc-
D 8
58 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
trine of purgatory. The folly and fanaticism of Monkeiy reigned unabated ; the account of which would be tedious and unprofitable. A monk, in imitation of Symeon Stylites, lived sixty -eight years upon different pillars; and a number of the austere penitents, whose madness had probably occasioned their severities, and whose fanaticism in return heightened their men- tal imbecility, obtained a safe retreat from the world, in an hos- pital, estabhshed in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, for the reception of those monks who Avere supposed to have lost their reason in the pursuit, of this pharisaical frenzy.
The Roman Mass-book, or Missal, was composed by Gre- gory the Great, the steady friend and patron of superstition; he strongl}^ insisted on the efficacy of relics, and encouraged the use of pictures and images in the churches. Vigilius ordered that those who celebrated mass, should direct their faces to the east. The Lord's Supper was also at this period held in such dread and reverence, as to be in danger of total disconti- nuance. The use of salt and water for sprinkhng those who entered or departed from the church, was established by an edict of Vigilius, in 538; a custom, hke many others, adopted from the heathen worship.
When once men lose sight of the principal end and design of sacred truth, there is no folly too gross for them to adopt. In this century violent disputes took place among the priests, re- lative to the shaving of the head; and the question agitated was, whether the hair of the priests and monks should be sha- ven on the fore part of the head, from ear to ear, or on the top of the head, in the form of a circle, as an emblem of the crown of thorns, worn by Jesus Christ. In the serAaces of the church a greater degree of splendour was continually introduced; and as this increased, men wandered farther and farther from the semblance of Christianity. The dreary night of ignorance began to gloom, and the road to truth, no longer pleasant and cheerful, was pursued only thi'ough dismal and inextricable labyrinths."
In the seventh century, the bishops of Rome succeeded in greatly extending their authority. *' The most learned writers,
" Gregory's Ch, Hist. vol. i.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 89
and those who are most remarkable for their knowledge of an- tiquity, are generally agreed thai Boniface III. engaged Pho- cas, that abominable tyrant, who waded to the imperial crown, through the blood of the emperor Mauritius, to take from the bishop of Constantinople, the title o^ (Ecumenical^ or Universal Bishop, and to confer it upon the Roman pontiff;^ and the title of Pope, by way of eminence, was first also in this century, appUed to the bishop of Rome ; a title which, meaning merely Father, had been hitherto used to the principal bishops in common. The bishops of Rome, having obtained the long contested pre-eminence, and having set their eyes on no- thing short of universal sway, now laid claim to infallibility, and accordingly Agatho asserted, that the church of Rome never had erred, nor could err, in any point; and that all its constitutions ought to be as implicitly received, as if they had been delivered by the divine voice of St. Peter.*
The progress of vice among the subordinate rulers and mi- nisters of the church, was, at this time, truly deplorable; dis- sensions, fraud, pride, and domination, appeared on every hand; and it is highl)^ probable, that the Waldenses, or Vaudois, had already, in this century, retired into the vallies of Piedmont, that they might be more at liberty to oppose the tyranny of imperious prelates. The monks were held in great estimation ; and by making common cause with the bishops of Rome, the hands of each were materially strengthened. The bishops of Rome commended the rules of monastic life; and the monks, in their turn, extolled the Pope of Rome, whom they repre- sented as a sort of Deity. Hence it became common for the heads of families to dedicate their children to the monastic life, by shutting them up in convents ; devoting them to a sohtary life, which they looked upon as the highest felicity : at the same time conveying to the convents large portions of worldly treasure. And numerous are the instances in which the most profligate and abandoned persons were comforted, in the pros- pect of death, by the delusive hope, that in bequeathing a
w Moslieim's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii.
" Hist, of Popery, vol. ii. p. 5.
D 4
40 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
large portion of property to some monastic order, they should make atonement for a mis-spent hfe.
If the inhabitants of the western world were thus miserably ingulphed in ignorance, it can scarcely be a matter of surprise, that those of the eastern world, under very inferior circumstances, should become the easy prey of imposture, and the dupes of creduhty.
In every age, such is the hbel we are compelled to suffer on our species, the applauses and concurrence of the multitude are more certainly obtained by audacity than by prudence ; and those notions which possess no title to respect, unless it be for their absurdity , have ever succeeded in proportion to the impunity by which they have been advanced and defended. The present century gave birth to those doctrines of Mahomet, which have since become the faith of so large a portion of the eastern world. Descended from the most illustrious tribe of the Arabians, and from the most illustrious family of that tribe, Mahomet was, notwithstanding, reduced, by the early death of his father, to the poor inheritance of five camels, and an Ethiopian maid ser- vant. In his 25th year, he entered into the service of Cadijah, an opulent widow of Mecca, his native city. By selling her merchandise in the countries of Syria, Egypt, and Palestine, Mahomet acquired a considerable part of that knowledge of the world, which facihtated his imposture and his conquests, and at length the gratitude or affection of Cadijah, which re- stored him to the station of his ancestors, by bestowing upon him her hand and her fortune. Having thus acquired advan- tages unkno^vn to his early years, in the spirit of that ambition which filled the western world, he resolved to become a public teacher; and to this end gave out, that he had been visited by the angel Gabriel, and was appointed the Prophet and Apostle of God. In a cave, to which he was accustomed to retire, he pro- fessed to have received, at successive intei-vals, the doctrines which he taught ; the nature of which were always suited to the convenience of his own conduct, and had this accommodating authority, that no present revelation could be affected by those which were previous : and hence, when he chose to transgress, he soon after asserted, he had received a revelation, which sanctioned the practice himself had adopted.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 41
The progress of die doctrines of Mahomet were at the first slow. Cadi) ah was the first whom he entrusted with the secret of liis mission, who received tlie intelhgence with great joy, and expressed her expectation, that he would become the pro- phet of his nation. After this he resorted to other branches of his family, and his friends, from whom also he met a favourable reception. These first steps were taken in his fortieth year. — The sun had, nevertheless, thrice performed liis annual circuit, without material addition to the followers of iVIahomet. At length, however, he determined to become the public champion of his doctrines, and "began to try the strength of his adhe- rents; and having endured many difficulties, and surmounted many obstacles, he succeeded, at the point of the sword, in es- tabHshing his doctrines throughout the greater part of Arabia ; and dying at the age of sixty- three^ was interred in that simple tomb, which misguided multitudes still continue to visit with profound reverence.
In the formation of his doctrines, he is supposed to have been assisted by the Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian monks, who are said to have lent secret aid to the composition of the Koran; An opinion, which the heterogeneous contents of that volume appears to justify. The faith which, under the name of Islaiiiy he preached to his family and nation, is compounded of an eternal truth, and a necessary fiction. That there is only one God^ and that Mahomet is the Apostle of God J
The doctrines of Mahomet were artfully adapted to the prejudices of the Jew^s, the several heresies of the eastern church, and the pagan rites of the Arabs. To a large pro- portion of mankind, also, they were rendered still more agreea- ble, by the full permission of sensual gratifications, both in this life and in that of the paradise he describes. Of the issue of his twelve wives, one daughter alone survived; and his sceptre was transferred to the hand of his friend Abubekir.
During this century, but few alterations were made in the doctrines of the church. In the fourth council of Toledo, held in the year 633, an alteration was made in the creed, asserting tliat the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son ;
' Gibbon's' l^ecline and Fall.
42 IIISTOillCAL SURVEY OF
an opinion long maintained by the Qreeks, and during this age introduced into the West. This Creed which has been distinguished by the appellation of the Nicene, is that which is used in the English Liturgy, but is in fact, the confession of faith drawn up at Constantinople. ^
In the eighth century, the power of the bishop of Rome and the clergy was much increased, either by secret intrigue, or open violence ; for though the persons who succeeded to that office differed in name, they were animated by one spirit, and therefore, each adopted the conduct of his predecessor in the one design of obtaining, under the specious garb of Christian professions, a larger extension of temporal authority. A very principal occurrence, which now favoiu'ed them in their views of advancement, arose from the dissentions which subsisted between the European princes, together with the blind submis- sion of the barbarous nations, who had assumed the profession of Christianity. — The sovereigns of Europe, had introduced the practice of distributing large possessions to those persons, who, from their talents or situation, might contribute to the stability of the empire, and as the clergy had attained, by the seductive arts of superstitious folly, a great degree of rever- ence among the people, the princes bestowed on them those honours and rewards, which had usually devolved on the mi- htary ; — this no doubt might be considered an act of temporary prudence, but it was unaccompanied by judicious foresight, for in the end, the power, thus conferred on the ecclesiastical au- thorities, was turned against that from whence it had originated.
The barbarous 'nations, who embraced the profession of the reigning faith, which had now become so transformed by human inventions, as to have nearly lost all resemblance to that whose name it bore ; dazzled by the splendour of its services, and the apparent sanctity of its ministers, very naturally transferred the veneration they had been accustomed to feel for their native in- stitutions, to those of the Roman church ; and filled with the most profound reverence, they considered the bishops of Rome in the same light in which they had been accustomed to view their dxuidical high priest ; — ^lience they had a supreme dread
* Bingham Ecc. Aiitiq, B. x. C. 4.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 43
of their displeasure, and reckoned excommunication the greatest evil that could befal them. — The bishops of Rome, who assidu- ously embraced every means in their power for aggrandizement, soon seized those which the present opportunity afforded : and hence they propagated the adopted opinion, that excommunica- tion not only deprived the individual of his claims, and advan- tages in the church, but also of his civil rights, and even of the common benefits of humanity ; a doctrine the most horrible in its consequences, and well calculated to introduce tliat pre- ponderance which soon arose, between the prostituted spiritual, and the temporal authority. Persons excommunicated, were henceforward considered the most miserable of men ; their con nections were released from the obligations of humanity towards them; and those unhappy individuals, were regarded only, as objects of the hatred, both of God and man.
The history of France, at this period, furnishes a remarkable example of the power of the Roman pontiff. Pepin, who was mayor of the palace to Childeric III. king of France, and who in the exercise of that high office, really possessed the royal authority, aspired also to the titles of the sovereign, and having ascertained the friendship of the states, he assembled them in 751, for the advancement of his views of dethroning the sove- reign.— The states delivered the opinion, that it should be enquired at the Roman see if such a deed would receive its sanc- tion, and ambassadors were in consequence dispatched by Pepin to Zachary the reigning pontiff, with the following question, " whether the divine law did not permit a valiant and warlike people, to dethrone a pusillanimous and indolent prince, who was incapable of discharging any of the functions of royalty, and to substitute in his place, one more worthy to rule, and who had already rendered most important services to the state?*" Zachary, who wanted the assistance of France, against the Greeks and Lombards, gladly availed himself of the opportunity, and returned a reply, confirming the validity of such a proceed- ing.— The pontifical decision removed every difficulty, and the unhappy Childeric was compelled to yield, without resistance, liis throne and government.
In those days of vassalage, the custom of kissing the feet of tlie popc; was quite established ; a practice derived from the
44 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
sovereigns of Rome, in whose dignities they claimed a succesiion, which practice appears to have been first introduced by the emperor CaUgula, from the vanity of exhibiting his golden slipper studded with precious stones; — in addition to this, the bishop of Rome Avas to be approached only, with the reverence and adulation common to the most potent monarchs.
Looking around at this period, what a mass of confusion does the world appear ; from the effects of the spirit of antichrist, all things seem out of place, and the va- pours of desolation darken and confound every object; — doctrines take the place of duties, and duties that of doctrines : here appears nothing but aspiring ambition, deprived by a superstitious alliance of its natural grandeur, and there nothing but tame obedience, rendered worthless by a gross ignorance. In the gloom of this cloudy day, religion and absui'dity, truth and falsehood, became entirely amalgamated ; and such was the triumph of monastic folly, over the plainest dictates of the understanding, that it was found necessary, in the council of Frankfort, to restrain the exercise of cruelty in the guardians of those miserable devotees, who had embraced that order, and the abbots were prohibited from putting out the eyes, or cutting off the limbs of their inferior brethren.
The nintfi century, presents a continuation of the efforts used by the bishops of Rome, for establishing their dominion. Having obtained in the last the grant of the Grecian territories in Italy, as their patrimony ,'^they had the audacity to assert, that the bishop of Rome was constituted and appointed by Jesus Christ, supreme legislator and judge of the universal church, and that, therefore, the bishops derived all their authority from the Roman pontiff; nor could the councils determine any thing without his permission and consent. These pretensions were not without their effect, for if it was not at this period thought absolutely necessary, it was considered extremely proper, that the acts of bishops and councils, should be confirmed by the Roman pontiff. In this century, the question of authority, between tlie bishops of Rome and Constantinople, was finally decided, after a furious contest, by a separation. — The worship of images, and the doctrine of the real presence in the eucharist, now also obtained gTeat attention. The worship of saints
THE CHUISTIAN CHURCH. 45
acquired considerable popularity, and such was the rage among the vulgar for this delusion, that it was found necessary to limit their number, by ordaining, that no departed Christian should be considered as a member of the order of Saints^ until the bishop had, in a provincial council, and in presence of the people, pronounce J. him worthy of that distinguished honour.
The impiety and licentiousness of the greatest part of the clergy arose, at this time, to an enormous height, and stand upvin record in the unanimous complaints of the most candid and impartial writers of this century. In the east, tumult, dis- cord, conspiracies, and treason, reigned uncontrolled, and all things were carried by violence and force. These abuses ap- peared in many things, but particularly in the election of the patriarchs of Constantinople. The favour of the court was be- come the only step to that high and important situation, and, as the patriarch's continuance, in that eminent post, depended upon such an uncertain and precarious foundation, nothing was more usual than to see a prelate pulled down, from his episcopal throne, by an imperial decree. In the western provinces the bishops were become voluptuous, and effeminate, to a very high degree ; they passed their lives amidst the splendour of courts, and the pleasures of a luxurious indolence, which corrupted their taste, extinguished their zeal, and rendered them incapable of performing the solemn duties of their function; while the in- ferior clergy, who were sunk in licentiousness, minded nothing but sensual gratifications, and infected with the most heinous vices, the flock whom it was the very business of their ministry to preserve, or to deliver from the contagion of iniquity. Be- sides, the ignorance of the sacred order was in many places so deplorable, that few of them could either read or write ! and still fewer were capable of expressing their wretched notions, with any degree of method or perspicuity. Hence it happened, that when letters were to be penned, or any matter of conse- quence was to be committed to writing, they had commonly recourse to some person who was supposed to be endowed with superior abihties. *
• Mosheini Ecc. Hist. Cent. 9. p. J.
46 HISTOmCAL SURVEY OF
In the tenth century, the night of ignorance, wliich had been so long advancing, totally enveloped mankind. The only emulation which appears to have existed, was that of increasing members to the Catholic faith, and the work of conversion, such as it was, brought into that profession the Norwegians, Poles, Russians, Hungarians, Danes, Swedes, and Normans, some of whom, so very imperfectly understood the nature of their pro- fession, that they continued to sacrifice according to their ancient idolatry.
The conduct of the clergy at this period became grossly vile. We may form some idea of the Grecian patriarchs, from the single example of Theophylact, who, according to the testimony of the most respectable writers, made the most impious traffic of ecclesiastical promotions ; and expressed no sort of care about any thing, but his dogs and horses. Degenerate and licen- tious, however, as these patriarchs might be, they were, ge- nerally speaking, less profligate and indecent than the Roman pontiffs.
The history of the Roman pontiffs, (says Dr. Mosheim,) in this century, is a history of so many monsters, and not of men ; and exhibits a most horrible series of the most flagitious,'^tremen- dous, and complicated crimes, as all writers, even those of the Romish communion, unanimously confess. A slight glance at some of the characters who now filled that office, will amply prove, that intrigue and villainy, were the surest requisites for attaining that appointment.— In the year 903, Benedict IV. was raised to the pontificate, which he enjoyed no longer than forty days, being dethroned by Christopher, and cast into prison ; Christopher, in his turn, was deprived of the pontifical dignity the year following, by Sergius III., a Roman Presbyter, seconded by the protection and influence of Adalbert, a most powerful Tuscan prince, who had a supreme and unlimited direction, in all the affairs that were transacted at Rome. Anastatius III. and Lando, who upon the death of Sargius m the year 911, were raised successively to the papal dignity, enjoyed it but for a short time; after the death of Lando 914, Alberic, marquis, or count of Tuscany, whose opulence was prodigious, and whose authority in Rome was despotic and
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 47
unlimited, obtained the pontificate for John X., archbishop of Ilavenna, in comphance with the sohcitation of Theodora, his mother-in-law, whose licentiousness was the principle that interested her in this promotion. The laws of Rome were at this time absolutely silent. — The dictates of justice and equity were overpowered and suspended, and all things were carried on by interest or corruption, by violence or fraud. ^
Pope John X., though in other respects a scandalous example of iniquity and licentiousness, acquired a certain degree of reputation, by his campaign against the Saracens, whom he expelled from their settlements upon the banks of the Garig- nialo; he did not, however, long enjoy his elevation, the enmity of Marozia, daughter of Theodora, and wife of Albert, proved fatal to him. That intriguing woman, having espoused Guy, Marquis of Tuscany, engaged him to seize the licentious pon- tiff, who was her mother's lover, and to put him to death. To John X. succeeded Leo VI. who presided but seven months in the apostolic chair, which was filled after him by Stephen VII. The death of the latter -(931) presented, to the ambition of Marozia, an object worthy of its attention ; and accordingly she raised to the papal dignity, John XI. who was the fruit of her lawless amours, with one of the pretended successors of St. Peter, Sergius III. whose adulterous commerce with that infamous woman, gave an infallible guide to the Roman church. John XT. who was placed at the head of the church, by the credit and influence of his mother, was precipitated from the summit of spiritual grandeur 933, by Alberic, his half brother, who had conceived the utmost aversion against him. Upon the death of her husband, Marozia, by her splendid offers, induced Hugo, king of Italy, to accept her hand. But the unhappy monarch did not long enjoy the promised honour of being made master of Rome ; Alberic, his son-in-law, stimulat- ed by an affront which he had received from him, excited the Romans to revolt, and expelled from the city, not only the offending king, but his mother Marozia, and her son, the reign- ing pontiff, all of whom he confined in prison, where John
* Mosheim Ecc. Hist. Cent. 10.
48 - HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
ended his days 936. — The four pontiffs who succeeded, were somewhat superior, at least their government was not attended with those tumults, which had become so frequent, from con- tention for the priestly dignity. Upon the death of Agupet the last of these, Alberic II. who to the dignity of Roman consul, joined a degree of authority and opulence which nothing could resist, raised to the pontificate Octavius, who was yet in the early bloom of youth, and destitute of every quality which might be supposed requisite for the discharge of that office. This pontiff* took the name of John XII. and thus introduced the custom, which has since been adopted by all his successors, of assuming a new appellation upon their accession to the pon- tificate.
The death of John XII. was as unhappy as his promotion had been scandalous. Unable to bear the oppressive yoke of Berenger II. king of Italy, he betrayed the city of Rome to Otho, to whom he also* swore allegiance ; he soon, however, repented of the step he had taken, and, revolting from him, joined Adelbert. This revolt was not left unpunished, for Otho returned to Rome, charging him with his flagitious crimes, and degraded him from his office. As soon as Otho had again quitted Rome, John returned, and soon after died, in consequence of a blow on the temples. Inflicted hy the hand of a gentleman whose wife he had seduced. Of the manners of this age it is difficult to form a competent idea ; they appear to have been a compound of the grossest . voluptuousness, and the most abject superstition. The power which the clergy had attained was prodigious ; they were considered as possess- ing the keys of purgatory at least, if not of hell — the dying profligate considered no price too dear for the redemption of his soul ; and thus to use the expression of an ingenious writer — " having found what Archimedes wanted, another world to rest on, they moved this world as they pleased.'' «
The eleventh century witnessed the continued increase of Papal power. All the records of this century loudly complain of the vices that reigned among the rulers of the church, and
* Gregory's Ch. Hist. Cent. x.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 49
in general among all the clergy. No sooner had the western bishops obtained elevation than they gave themselves up en- tirely to the dominion of pleasure and ambition. The inferior orders of the clergy were also licentious in their own way ; few among them preserved any remains of piety and virtue, or even of decency and discretion. While their rulers were wal- lowing in luxury, and basking in the beams of worldly pomp and splendour, they were indulging themselves, without the least sense of shame, in fraudulent practices, in impure and lascivious gratifications, and even in the commission of the most flagitious crimes.
The authority and lustre of the Latin church, or to speak more properly, the power and dominion of the Roman pontiffs, arose in this century to the highest pitch, though they arose by degrees, and had much opposition and many difficulties to conquer. In the preceding age the pontiffs had acquired a great degree of authority in religious matters, and in every thing that related to the government of the church; and then- credit and influence increased prodigiously towards the commencement of this century. For then they received the pompous titles q£ Masters of the World and Popes^ i. e. UnU versal Fathers^ Hitherto the struggle between temporal and the prostituted spiritual power had been clandestine. The popes indeed had often shewn their inclination to seize the reigns of civil government, a disposition which roused the opposition of princes, and particularly of WiUiam the Conqueror, now seated on the throne of England, the boldest assertor of the rights of royalty against the popish claims. The contentions and tumults also, which Avere usual in obtaining the papal chair were continued in a manner equally remarkable and disgi-acefid ; and at this period the world witnessed two popes elected by opposite factions, contending for the mastery. — Hence an alteration was effected, confining the election for the papal dignity to the Cardinals, a title conferred on a number of the superior clergy.
The popes now not only aspired td the character of supreme legislators in the church, to an unlimited jurisdiction over all
" Moshcim Ecc. Hist. Cent, xi,
E
50 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
synods and councils, and to the sole distribution of all ecclesias- tical honours, as divinely authorised and appointed for that pur- pose, but they carried their pretensions so far as to give themselves out for lords of the universe, arbiters of the fate of kingdoms and empires, and supreme rulers over the kings and princes of the earth. Nothing can be more insolent than the language in which Hildibrand, Pope Gregory VII. addressed himself to Philip I. kino- of France, to whom he recommends an humble and obHging carriage, from this consideration, that hoth his Jcing- dam and Ids soul were under the dominion of St. Peter (i. e. his vicar, the Roman pontiiF) who had the 'power to hind and to loose him, hoth in heaven and upon earth. Nothing escaped the all-grasping ambition of Gregory, — he pretended that Saxony was a feudal tenure, held in subjection to the see of Rome, to which it had been formerly yielded by Charlemagne, as a pious oiTering to St. Peter. He extended also his preten- sions to the kingdom of Spain, maintaining that it was the 'property of the apostolic see from the earhest times of the church ; these usurping assertions prevailed so far in Spain as to procure for the pope the acknowledgment of an annual tribute ; but in England, when Gregory wrote to William the Conqueror, demanaing the an-ears of the Peter Pence (a penny from every house) and requiring him to do homage for the kingdom of England, as a fiief of the apostolic see, William granted the former, but refused the latter, with a noble obsti- nacy, declaring, that lie held the kingdom from God only, and by his own sword.*
Gregory, hov/ever, succeeded by his familiarity with Ma- tilda, the daughter of Boniface, duke of Tuscany, and the most powerful and opulent princess in that country, who settled all her possessions in Italy and elsewhere upon the church of Rome, and the successors of St. Peter.
In the year 1074, it was decreed in a council held at' Rome, that the sacerdotal order should abstain from njarriage, and that such of them as had already wives or concubines should immediately dismiss them, or quit the priestly office, a decree which was enforced in the most rigid manner.
The eleventh century, although remarkable for the exten-
• Moshcim Ecc. Hist. Cent, xi.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 51
sion of pontifical authority, is also more nobly so on account of the dawnings of truth, and the revival of learning. The close of this century witnessed the novelty of an army march- mg under the banner of the cross, in a war against the Holy Land, thence denominated the first Crusade. The land of Palestine had become the object of veneration, both to the Ma- hometan and Christian professors. The popes had for a long time viewed it with an anxious eye ; and Gregory VII. actu- ally resolved to undertake in person a holy war, and instigated upwards of fifty thousand men to embark in the design, but his quarrels and other occurrences frustrated his views. The project, however, was renewed towards tlie close of tliis century, by the enthusiastic zeal of an inhabitant of Amiens, called Peter the Hermit, who having visited Palestine, displayed, in the most affecting manner, the sufferings of the natives and pilgi'ims. — Peter supphed the deficiency of reason by loud and frequent appeals to Christ and his mother, to the saints and angels of paradise, with whom he had personally conversed, and, it is said, carried about with him a letter which, he affirmed, was written in heaven, addressed to all true Chris- tians, to animate their zeal for the dehverance of their brethren, who groaned under the burthen of a Mahometan yoke.^ So flattering an opportunity as this for exhibiting the pious zeal of the faithful was not to be lightly regarded, and therefore Pope Urban assembled a council at Placentia and at Cler- mont ; at the latter of which his eloquence prevailed ; and an incredible number devoted themselves to the service of the cross, which was made the symbol of the expedition, and which, worked in red worsted, was worn on the breasts or shoulders of the adventurers. The court of Rome used every exertion to encrease the number of these devotees, and pro- claimed a plenaiy indulgence to those who should enlist under the cross, and a full absolution of all their sins.
The 15th of August, 1096, had been fixed in the council of Clermont, for the departure of the pilgrims, but tlie day was anticipated by a thoughtless and needy crowd of ]>Iebeians. Early in the spring, from tlie confines of France and Lor-
* Gibbon's Decline and Fall, cLap. 27, E 9,
52 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF
raine, above sixty tliousand of the populace of both sexeS flocked round the missionary of the crusade, and pressed him with clamorous importunity to lead them to the holy sepulchre. The Hermit obeyed, and led forward the motley group, which was soon followed by fifteen or twenty thousand from Germany, whose rear was again pressed by an herd of two hundred thou- sand, the most stupid and savage refuse of the people, who mingled with their de^'otion a brutal licence of rapine, prosti- tution, and ch'unkenness. Some counts and gentlemen, at the head of three thousand horse, attended the motions of the multitude to partake in the spoil, but their genuine leaders (may we credit such folly ?) were a goose and a goat, who were carried in the front, and to whom was ascribed, by the ignorant multitude, an infusion of the Divine Spirit.? This rabble, after being wasted by the Hungarians, and the natural evils attending their disorderly progress, were overwhelmed in the plains of Nice, by the Turkish arrows ; and from the be- ginning to the end of this expedition 300,000 perished before a single city was rescued from the infidels, and before their graver and more noble brethren had completed their prepara- tions. The regular armies which embarked in this undertaking proceeded in due order: that commanded by Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, was composed of eighty thousand well chosen troops, horse and foot, and directed its march through Germany and Hungary. Another which was headed by Raymond, Earl of Toulouse, passed through the Sclavonian territories. Robert, Earl of Flanders, Robert, Duke of Nor- mandy, Hugo, brother to Philip I., King of France, embarked their respective forces in a fleet ; and these armies were follow- ed by Boemond, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, at the head of a chosen and numerous body of valiant Normans.
This army was the greatest, and, in outward appearance, the most formidable that had been known in the memory of man. It obtained the possession of the city of Nice, in Bithynia, 1097, and after a siege of five weeks, that of Jerusalem, the cro^v^l- ing point of their ambition; at the head of which was placed the celebrated Godfrey, whom the army saluted King of Jerusa-
s Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. 37.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
lem, with an unanimous voice, and leaving a small foiv his support, returned each to his njitive territory.
This lioli) war, as it was stiled, proved highly productive to the Romish church, since those who embarked in it disposed of their property as if they had died, and made large donations to the papal power ; and this circumstance, with those before enumerated, gave to the church a title to earthly possessions and temporal government.
In the commencement of the twelfth century, Boleslaus, Duke of Poland, having conquered the Pomeranians, offered them peace upon condition that they would receive the Chris- tian teachers, and permit them to exercise their ministry among them, a condition which they accepted, and by which the pro- fession of Christianity was established among them. Hence it became allowable to make war on nations, for no other reason than because they adhered to their antient superstitions in preference to those of the Romish people ; and the most horri- ble scenes of cruelty and bloodshed were carried on against the Livonians in a holy war, for then* conversion.
In 1146, a second crusade was undertaken, rendered necessary by the hostile measures adopted by the Mahometans, who obtain- ed possession of Edessa, and threatened Antioch. The second crusade was followed by a third, which obtained support from Richard I. King of England, and which exhausted the armies of England, France, and Germany. At this period were in- troduced several orders, designed to confer honour on the adventurers — as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, the Knights of Malta, and the Knights Templars, from a palace appropriated to them adjoining the temple at Jerusalem.
This century also witnessed a contention between Pope Pascal and Henry IV., in which the former, after exhausting the force of excommunications, finally obtained victory through the rebellion of an unnatural son, afterwards Henry V., who seized upon his father, and compelled him to abdicate his throne.
The dormant struggle for power between the popes and emperors, was revived diu'ing the pontificate of Alexander III, who attained the papal chair 1169. The elevation of this prelate was warmly opposed by several of the cardinals, who
E 3
(lISTOmCAL SURVEY OF
Si
^\her of their body, under the name of Victor III., pkfnch they obtained the sanction and assistance of the Em- peror Frederick I. The terrified pontiff fled precipitately into Sicily, whence he procured a passage into France ; and such was the pitch which superstitious folly had attained, that the Kings of France and England, led the horse of this pretended successor of St. Peter, themselves on foot holding his horse's bridle. After a series of contentions during eighteen years, tranquillity was once more restored by the submission of the emperor, who condescended to prostrate himself at the feet of the haughty pontiff, in the great church of St. Mark, at Venice, and to receive from him the Kiss of Peace.
In this century also the celebrated Thomas a Becket, of sainted memory, was assassinated. This haughty prelate, who was Archbishop of Canterbury, by his zeal in behalf of the court of Rome, gave great offence to his sovereign, Henry II. of England, the consequences of which at length proved fatal. After repeated affronts, the king one day, in an unguarded moment, when particularly exasperated, ex- pressed himself thus ; " Am I not unhappy, that among the numbers who are attached to my interests, and employed in my service, there is none possessed of spirit enough to resent the 'affronts, which I am constantly receiving from a miserable priest ?'''* These words were indeed not pronounced in vain— four gentlemen of the court immediately set forward to Canterbury, where they found Becket in his chapel, per- forming the evening service, and slew him. Henry reflecting on his words, and having reason to suspect their design, dis- patched a messenger after them, charging them to attempt no- thing against the person of the primate. But these orders arrived too late.* Such, however, was the power of the reign- ing superstition, that the reluctant Henry was compelled to do severe penance, as the instigator, whilst the prelate was enrolled among the saints and martyrs, and such miracles attributed to his bones as obtained whole hosts of pilgrims from most parts of the world, and a shrine of immense value.
Pope Alexander III., who, hke most of his predecessors,
>• Hume's England, Vol. I. 394.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
55
SliC,
knew miicli more of secular policy tlian of religion, enacted, in tlie third council of the Lateran, that the person, in whose favour two-thirds of the college of cardinals voted, should be the duly elected pope ; a law which will probably last as long as popery, because it excludes the people, and even the inferior clergy, from any share in the choice of their holy father. In this council also a spiritual war was declared against heretics. The appearance of some champions of truth in the last century has been before alluded to, and if great attention has not been paid to them, it is because the subject leads in the rugged steps of haughty prelates and aspiring pontiffs, gradually ascending to the very pinnacle of power, until the deluded world fell down beneath them, a mighty ruin. In this place, however, let those exalted worthies receive homage, who, from age to age, kept up the dying embers of expiring truth, until at length it poured its sacred rays in a full tide on the benighted world.
The increase of opposition which the Popish faith expe- rienced, and the fact that some were to be found who would dare to think, though it should cost their blood, determined the project of a spiritual war; a very natural precursor to that crying abomination, the Holy I?iquisitio7i, at once the scourge, disgrace, and terror, of the human race.
This century is also remarkable for the sale of indulgences^ by which the church was supposed to forego its power of punishing offenders, in consequence of a certain fine. In these times of dotage every sort of mummery was accounted holy, and the monks introduced the practice of carrying the dead bodies of their saints in solemn procession through the land, which the abject multitude were permitted to approach, to touch, or to embrace, at certain established prices. The inferior clergy had accustomed the people to the purchasing of pardons, and the popes, considering the value of the appen- dage, laid claim to the benefit, and annexed the sale of indul- gences to the prerogatives of the holy see. It is not, how- ever, designed to extend this rapid Survey of Ecclesiasti- cal History beyond the close of this twelfth century. The
E 4
illSTORICAL SURVEY OF
^^idther of their body, under the name of Victor III., ^k^c\\ they obtained the sanction and assistance of the Em- peror Frederick I. The terrified pontiff fled precipitately into Sicily, whence he procured a passage into France ; and such was the pitch which superstitious folly had attained, that the Kings of France and England, led the horse of this pretended successor of St. Peter, themselves on foot holding his horse''s bridle. After a series of contentions during eighteen years, tranquillity was once more restored by the submission of the emperor, who condescended to prostrate himself at the feet of the haughty pontiff, in the great church of St. Mark, at Venice, and to receive from him the Kiss of Peace.
In this century also the celebrated Thomas a Becket, of sainted memory, was assassinated. This haughty prelate, who was Archbishop of Canterbury, by his zeal in behalf of the court of Rome, gave great offence to his sovereign, Hem-y II. of England, the consequences of which at length proved fatal. After repeated affronts, the king one day, in an unguarded moment, when particularly exasperated, ex- pressed himself thus ; " Am I not unhappy, that among the numbers who are attached to my interests, and employed in my service, there is none possessed of spirit enough to resent the 'affronts, which I am constantly receiving from a miserable priest .^" These words were indeed not pronounced in vain— four gentlemen of the court immediately set forward to Canterbury, where they found Becket in his chapel, per- forming the evening service, and slew him. Henry reflecting on his words, and having reason to suspect their design, dis- patched a messenger after them, charging them to attempt no- thing against the person of the primate. But these orders arrived too late> Such, however, was the power of the reign- ing superstition, that the reluctant Henry was compelled to do severe penance, as the instigator, whilst the prelate was enrolled among the saints and martyrs, and such miracles attributed to his bones as obtained whole hosts of pilgrims from most parts of the world, and a shrine of immense value.
Pope Alexander III., who, hke most of his predecessors,
*• Hume's England, Vol. I. 394.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
55
knew much more of secular policy than of religion, enacted, in tlie third council of the Lateran, tliat the persson, in whose favour two-thirds of the college of cardinals voted, should be the duly elected pope ; a law which will probably last as long as popery, because it excludes the people, and even the inferior clergy, from any share in the choice of their holy father. In this council also a spiritual war was declared against heretics. The appearance of some champions of truth in the last century has been before alluded to, and if great attention has not been paid to them, it is because the subject leads m the rugged steps of haughty prelates and aspiring pontiffs, gradually ascending to the very pinnacle of power, until the deluded world fell down beneath them, a mighty ruin. In this place, however, let those exalted worthies receive homage, who, from age to age, kept up the dying embers of expiring truth, until at length it poured its sacred rays in a full tide on the benighted world.
The increase of opposition which the Popish faith expe- rienced, and the fact that some were to be found who would dare to think, though it should cost their blood, determined the project of a spiritual war; a very natural precursor to that crying abomination, the Holy Liquisitio7i, at once the scourge, disgrace, and terror, of the human race.
This century is also remarkable for the sale of indulgences, by which the church was supposed to forego its power of punishing offenders, in consequence of a certain fine. In these times of dotage every sort of mummery was accounted holy, and the monks introduced the practice of carrying the dead bodies of their saints in solemn procession through the land, which the abject multitude were permitted to approach, to touch, or to embrace, at certain established prices. The inferior clergy had accustomed the people to the purchasing of pardons, and the popes, considering the value of the appen- dage, laid claim to the benefit, and annexed the sale of indul- gences to the prerogatives of the holy see. It is not, how- ever, designed to extend this rapid Survey of Ecclesiasti- cal History beyond the close of this twelfth century. The
E-4
56 HISTOEICAL SURVEY OF
History of the Inquisition naturally, in some degree resuming, or alluding to that subject.
In conclusion, therefore, what an argument does the vast period, now hastily glanced over, afford, on the mischievous ef- fects of error and of superstition. The world has been con- quered by force of arms, but her inhabitants were held in sub- jection, by the continued efforts of that power, which first re- duced them. Superstition obtains a victory, and maintains a conquest, by a far different operation — she gains possession of the heart. Warriors have indeed prevailed over physical force, but they could never controul the will. Superstition has done this; — she has seated herself in the throne of judgment, and commanded all human affections. Reviewing the past, may it not then be said, what a deadly poison is that which she instills ! Sufficiently allied to truth to obtain its sacred sanction, and yet so contaminated by error, as wholly to destroy the efficacy of that alliance ; her influence descends upon the mind of man like an overshadowing cloud, which, from a transparent vapour, becomes a solid gloom, leaving the wretched wanderer in the mazes of the grossest darkness. Superstition, indeed, appears to be the human mind^s most natural disease, in its present fallen state; cut off by transgression from that love and contempla- iton of the Divine excellency, for which it was originally created, the soul betrays its sacred instinct, by an awful and perverted action ; for when men knew God from the displays of his eternal power in the visible world, they glorified him not as God, but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Hence the histories of all na- tions abound with the records of idol worship, but whilst the abominations of a system professedly established on Christian principles are in view, it is unnecessary to turn for scenes of horror to the plains of Juggernaut.
It is truth, scriptural truth alone which can emancipate the soul — not by assisting men''s natural notions, but by dictating evejy idea, which is proper or even allowable in the service of God : where this is the case, there the kingdom of God is estabhshed in the heart of man ; where it is not, but where the scriptures are either partially or wholly laid aside— where
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 57
men reject the commandments of God, that they may keep their own traditions, all things are out of place, there is con- fusion, and more or less every evil work. Hence the great enemy of man and his emissaries, have either forbad the read- ing of the scriptures, or sophistically perverted their ail-iiupor- tant declarations. They have however been confounded whenever and by whomsoever the sacred volume has been duly honoured — taught by its prophetic voice, and assured of final victory. Christians have in every age been animated to use this weapon alone, in the face of every danger, whilst in the same loving spirit which it breathes— (not by fire and sword) they have endeavoured to persuade all human kind to love the sacred Author of their being in the way his wisdom and mercy have appointed.
HISTORY
OF THE
Itnt^tl^lMuM^
CHAP. I.
The Doctrine of Jesus Christ forbids Persecution on the Account of Religion.
Although the inquisition was not so much as heard of m the Christian church before the thirteenth cen- tury, yet since it has spread itself ahnost throughout the whole world and become every where notorious, it is not to be won- dered at, that there should be a general curiosity in marikind of more thoroughly understanding it, and knowing by what laws it is conducted, and what are the methods of proceeding therein. The doctors of the Romish church give it the highest commendations, as the only and most certain means of extir- pating heresies, and an impregnable support of the faith ; not invented by human wisdom and council, but given to men by the immediate influence of heaven, whose tribunal breathes nothing but holiness, and to which they give such titles, as denote the most perfect sanctity. The Inquisition itself is called the Holy Office, the prison of the Inquisition the Holy House; so that the very name confers upon it respect and veneration: yea, they go so far as to compare it with the sun, and affirm, that as it would be accounted ridiculous to commend and extol the sun, it would be equally so to pretend to praise the Inquisition.
60 HISTORY OF THE INQUISITIOy.
The Protestants, on the other hand, represent it, not only as a cruel and bloody, but most unjust tribunal ; where, as the laws by which other tribunals are governed are disregarded, so many things which every where else would be esteemed un- righteous, are commended as holy. And they are so far from thinking that it is a proper means of restraining or punishing the guilty (which is the principal thing to be aimed at by every tribunal) that, on the contrary, they believe it was invented for the oppression of truth, and the defence of superstition and tyranny : where persons, let their innocency appear as bright as the sun at noon-day, are treated as the most vile and perfidious wretches, and cruelly put to death by the severest tortures. I therefore thought it might be of service to the world, to de- scribe the origin of this tribunal; and against whom, and by what methods, they generally proceed in it. In order to this, it is necessary to look back, and deduce this whole affair from its very origin.
The Christian religion, taught by the Apostles, made its progress in the world, and shewed itself to be of divine original, by the holiness of its precepts, the exceeding gi'eatness of its promises, and the many miracles, wrought in confirmation of it ; and, at last, brought the whole world into its obedience, without the assistance of carnal weapons, or temporal power.
Our Saviour sent his disciples into the world, as a blessing : they were to preach the Gospel to every creature — to publish those glad tidings of gTeat joy, which concern all people— to proclaim his character and office, according to that prophecy, which he himself adopted as his own, in the synagogue at Nazareth, and by which he is declared, anointed to preach the gospel to the poor — sent to heal the broken-hearted — to preach dehverance to the captives — recovering of sight to the bhnd — and to set at hberty the bruised.
A character like this, stands at an infinite distance from cruelty of every kind. Its perfection consists in being Iholy^ harmless^ and undefiled ; it never sanctioned the doing of evil that good may come. Nor will any act of such a kind fail to meet with disapproval in that day, when God shall judge the secrets of men by his well-beloved Son, the Author and the Fi- nisher of Faith.
HISTORY OF THE IN^QUISITION. 61
CHAP. II.
The opinion of the Primitive Christians concerning Perse-
cution.
THE primitive Christians opposed with the greatest vigour, all cruelty and persecution for the sake of religion. It is true, indeed, that^they condemned the Heathen for their barbarities; and argued wholly for this, that Christians should have the free exercise of their rehgion granted them; but they used such arguments, and topics of reasoning, and even sometimes when treating of different subjects, expressed themselves in such a manner, as plainly declares that they do equally condemn all sort of violence for the sake of rehgion, against all persons what- soever. Thus Tertullian, in his Apology, * says : " Take heed that this be not made use of to the praise of impiety, viz. to take away from men the liberty of religion, and forbid them the choice of their deity ; so that it should be criminal for them to worship whom they would, and they should be compelled to worship whom they would not ; no one would accept of an involuntary service, no not a man.*" And again, J " It plainly appears unjust, that men possessed of liberty and choice, should be compelled against their will to sacrifice. For in other cases a willing mind is required in the performance of divine worship; and it may justly be accounted ridiculous to force any person to honour the Gods, whom he ought wiUingly for his own sake to endeavour to appease." And again, in his book to Scapula. ^ " Every one hath a natural right and power to worship according to his persuasion, for no man's reli- gion can be either hurtful or profitable to his neighbour : nor can it be a part of religion to compel men to religion, which ought to be voluntarily embraced, and not through constraint ; since 'tis expected, that even your sacrifices should be offered with a willing mind ; so that if you compel us to sacrifice, think not to please your Gods ; for unless they dehght in strife, they will not desire unwilling sacrifices: but God is not a lover of contention."" Cyprian also agrees with Tertullian his master, in liis 62d letter to Pomponius, concerning virgins, where,
! Cap. 21. j Cap. 28. ^ Cap, 2.
(Ja HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
treating of the excommunication of offenders, he thus speaks : *' God commanded, that those who would not obey his priests, and those judges, which time after time he appointed, should be slain. Such were cut off with the sword during the dispensa- tion of the circumcision in the flesh. But now, since the spiritual circumcision takes place in all the faithful servants of God, the proud and obstinate are to be slain with the sphitual sword, by being cast out of the church.'' The Apostle, in his Epistle to the Corintliians, says. That in a large house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but of wood and earth, some to honour, and some to dishonour. '' Let us endeavour, as much as we can, to be found amongst those of gold and silver. 'Tis the sole prerogative of the Lord to break the earthen ones, to whom the iron rod is committed. The servant cannot be greater than his Lord ; nor should any one arrogate to himself what the Father hath committed to the Son only, viz. to winnow and purge the flour, and separate, by any human judgment, the chaff from the wheat." And in his 55th to Cornelius : " Nor let any one wonder that some should forsake tlie serv^ant ap- pointed over them, when the disciples left the Lord himself, though he wrought the greatest signs and wonders ; and proved by the testimony of his works, that he acted by the power of his Father. And yet he did not reproach or grievously threaten them when they forsook him, but gently turned to his A|X)stles and said, What, will you forsake me also ? Observing that sacred law, of every one's being left to his own liberty and will, and making for himself his own choice, whether of life or death."' Now since from these passages, it plainly appears, that Cyprian taught, that all force in matters of religion, is contrary to the nature of Christianity, I cannot but take notice of the disho- nesty of Bellarmine,^ who in his 3d book of Controversies,*" brings in Cyprian as a defender of the murder of Heretics ; who having in his book concerning martyrdom, cited that passage out of Deut. xiii. " That the false prophet shall be slain, adds. If this was to be done under the Old Testament, much more under the New." But if we look to the words immediately following, we shall find that Cyprian's opinion was
1 De Laicig. "" cap. 21.
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION. 6S
quite the reverse : for these are the words of Cyprian : "If before the coming of Christ, the commands of worshipping God, and forsaking idols, were to be observed, how much rather are they to be observed since his appearance ? who not only exhort- ed us by words, but by his own actions ; and who, after having endured all manner of injuries and reproaches, was crucified, that he might leave us an example how to suffer and die. So that he hath no excuse who will not suffer on his own account ; for as he suffered for the sins of all, how much more ought every one to suffer for his own sins ?" If this passage be read entire, it will appear, how^ very falsly Bellarmine hath applied it to the defence of the murder of Heretics, which was only intended as an exhortation to the patient suffering of mar- tyrdom.
Lactantius defends the same doctrine in a nobler and plainer manner," " There is no need of compulsion and violence, because religion cannot be forced, and men must be made ■willing, not by stripes, but arguments. Let them draw the sword of their reason ; if their reasons are good, let them produce them ; we are ready to hear, if they can teach ; if they are silent, we cannot believe them : if they pretend to force us, we cannot yield to them: let them imitate us, or fairly debate the case with us. It is not our manner, as they object, to entice men; we teach, prove, and demonstrate; no one is kept amongst us against his will ; and he must be unacceptable to God, who wants devotion and faith ; and yet none forsake us, being preserved by the sole evidence and force of truth." And a little after : " Let them leai'n from this what difference there is between truth and falsehood ; in that they, though boasting of their eloquence, cannot persuade; yet Christians, though unskilful and ignorant, can ; for the thing itself, and truth pleads in their behalf To what purpose then is their rage, but to expose more that folly which they strive to conceal ? Slaughter and piety ai'e quite opposite to each other; nor can truth consist witli violence, or justice Avith cruelty." And a httle after: " They are convinced that there is nothing more excellent than religion, and therefore think that it ought to be defended with force ; but they are mistaken both in the nature
° Lib. 5. c. 20.
64 HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
of religion, and in the proper methods to support it; for rehgion is to be defended, not by murder, but persuasion ; not by cruelty, but patience; not by wickedness, but faith. Those are the metliods of bad men, these of good ; and 'tis necessary that a religious man should be good, and not evil ; for if 3^ou attempt to defend religion by blood, and torments, and evil, this is not to defend but to violate and pollute it: for there is nothing should be more free than the choice of our religion, in which, if the consent of the worshipper be wanting, it becomes entirely void and ineffectual. The true way there- fore of defending religion is by faith, a patient suffering, and dying for it : this renders it acceptable to God, and strengthens its authority and influence." This was that most harmless persuasion of the Primitive Chi'istians, before the world had yet entered into the church, and by its pomp and pride had perverted the minds, and corrupted the manners of professors.
CHAP. III.
The Laws of the Emperors, after the Nicene Council, against the Arians and other Heretics.
AFTER the conversion of Constantine to the Christian religion, the civil power became vested in the hands of Chris- tians. This change in their circumstances produced as great a change in their doctrine and manners ; and they introduced into the church methods of cruelty, not only equal to those of the Heathen, but even greater than were ever practised by them. What gave thc^ first rise to it was, the dispute between Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and Arius, a Presbyter of the same cliurch : when the news of this was brought to Con- stantine, he first by letter sharply reproved them. But after- wards, witli the persuasion of the bisliops, or out of some political view, he called the Nicene coic7icil, that by their authority the opinions of Arius might be condemned. Euse- bius, who was present at that council, was able to give the
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION. 65
best account of it; but he chose rather that their actions should be for ever forgotten, and contented himself in a very few words to declare the issue of it: and if we add to the account given by him, the somewhat larger one given by Socrates, it appears plain, that all who would not subscribe to their decrees, were condemned to banishment, and there is no room to doubt, such are the frailties of human nature, but that many through fear were compelled to subscribe. Some few indeed there were, who not at all terrified with the fear of banishment, went into exile with Arius, whom the Synod had condemned, because they would not consent to his condemna- tion. The emperor himself put forth an edict, by which he ordained, that all the books written by Arius should be burnt, " condemning to death every one that should conceal any of Arius's books, and not commit them to the flames.'' » He afterwards put forth a fresh law against the Recusants, by wliich he took from them their places of worship, and prohi- bited their meeting not only in public, but even in any private houses whatsoever.''
After they had thus proceeded to methods of severity, and civil punishments were decreed against those, whose opinions the council were pleased to condemn, whom they exposed under the infamous name of Heretics, and rendered odious to the people, their cruelty was not satisfied with one degree of punishment only ; they went from one to another, that so the doctrine condemned by the council might find none that should dare to defend it, and might at last be totally extirpated. From pecuniary mulcts, they proceeded to the forfeiture of goods, banishment, and at length to slaughter and blood; for such is the nature of cruelty, that it seldom confines itself to the first beginnings, but when it is once let loose, like an impetuous torrent, it spreads itself every where, and from every occasion grows more outrageous and furious. This will appear most plainly in the account I am now giving of the methods for the restraining and punishment of Heretics.
For in the first place, laws were made against Heretics, whereby they were prohibited from having churches, holding
* Socrat. 1, I. r. 9. ♦• Eiiseb. Life of Coustan. I. 3. c 65.
66 HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
assemblies, the enjoying any ecclesiastical preferments, the consecration of bishops, the ordination of priests, the making of wills, the succeeding to inheritances, the sharing in any charities, the advancement to public offices, and ordaining severe punishments against those who did not observe these prescriptions.
And first, it was determined who should be accounted Heretics. " They are comprehended under the name of Heretics, and are adjudged to the punishments pronounced against such, who shall be discovered to differ, even in the least point, from the judgment and practice of the Catholic rehgion."^ By the same law it is ordained, " That no one should dare, either to teach or learn those things that shall have been decreed to be profane.""'* By the law following, their churches are taken from them, and they are prohibited from performing holy offices, either in private houses or churches, under the forfeiture of one hundred pounds of gold upon all contraveners. '^ The following law is yet more severe, which takes from them the power of giving, buying, selling, making contracts or wills, or inheriting their parents estates, unless they renounce their heretical pravity. There are many laws extant concerning the banishment of Heretics. Theodo- sius II. and Valentinian III. counting up thirty-two sects, and their followers, decree, " let not these and the Manicheans, who are arisen to the height of impiety, have the hberty of dwelling any where within the dominions of the Roman empire : let the Manicheans be expelled from every city, and punished ^vith death; for they are not to be suffered to have any dwelling on the earth, lest they should infect the very elements them- selves.'' '^
See also L. Quicunque, where -the foremen tioned penalties are not only repeated, but other kinds of punishments ordained against them ; which are all extant in the law of the emperor Martian, who renews the punishments ordained by the preced- ing emperors, against the Eutichians, and which is recorded at the end of the council of Chalcedon, and which will suffice in-
* L. Omnes, c. de Hafriet. *> Cuncti. ^ Manichaeoi.
J L. Ariani, c. de Haeret.
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION. 67
Stead of all other instances. By this law the emperor ordained, " That they should not have power of disposing of their estates, and making a will, nor of inheriting what others should leave them by will. Neither let them receive advantage by any deed of gift, but let whatsoever is given them, either by the bounty of the living, or the will of the dead, be immediately forfeited to our treasury ; nor let them have the power, by any title or deed of gift, to transfer any part of their own estates to others. Neither shall it be lawful for them to have or ordain bishops or presbyters, or any other of the clergy whatsoever ; as knowing that the Eutichians and Apolhnarists, who shall presume to confer the names of bishop or presbyter, or any other sacred office upon any one, as well as those who shall dare to retain them, shall be condemned to banishment, and the forfeiture of theu' goods. And as to those who have been formerly ministers in the Catho- lic church, or monks of the orthodox faith, and forsaking the true and orthodox worship of the Almighty God, have, or shall embrace, the heresies and abominable opinions of ApoUinarius, or Eutyches^ let them be subject to all the penalties ordained by this, or any foregoing laws whatsoever, against hereticks, and banished from the Roman dominions, according as former laws have decreed against the Manicheans. Farther, let not any of the Apolhnarists, or Eutychians, build churches or monasteries, or have assemblies and conventicles, either by day or night ; nor let the followers of this accursed sect meet in any one's house or tenement, or in a monastery, nor in any other place whatsoever : but if they do, and it shall appear to be with the consent of the owners of such places, after a due examination, let such place or tenement in which they meet, be immediately forfeited to us ; or if it be a monastery, let it be given to the orthodox church of that city in whose territory it is. But if so be, they hold these unlawful assemblies and conventicles, without the knowledge 6f the owner, but with the privity of him who receives the rents of it, the tenant, agent, or steward of the estate, let such tenant, agent, or steward, or whoever shall receive them into any house or tenement, or monastery, and suffer them to hold such unlawful assemblies and conven- ticles, if he be of low and mean condition, be publicly bastina-
F 2
68 HISTORY OF THE INaUISITION.
doed, as a punishment to himself, and as a warning to others; but if they are persons of repute, let them forfeit ten pounds of gold to our treasury. Farther, let no ApolUnarist or Euty- chian ever hope for any miUtary preferment, except to be listed in the foot soldiers, or garrisons : but if any of them shall be found in any other military service, let them be immediately broke, and forbid all access to the palace, and not suffered to dwell in any other city, town, or country, but that wherein they were born.
" But if any of them are born in this august city, let them be banished from this most sacred society, and from every metro- politan city of our provinces. Farther, let no ApoUinarist. or Eutychian, have the power of calling assembhes, public or pri- vate, or gathering together any companies, or disputing in any heretical manner; or of defending their perverse aud wicked opinions ; nor let it be lawful for any one to speak or write, or pubhsh any thing of their own, or the writings of any others, contrary to the decrees of the venerable synod of Chalcedon. — Let no one have any such books, nor dare to keep any of the impious performances of such writers. And if any are found guilty of these crimes, let them be condemned to perpetual ba- nishment ; and as for those, who, through a desire of learning, shall hear others disputing of this wi'etched heresy, it is our pleasure, that they forfeit ten pounds of gold to our treasury, and let the teacher of these unlawful tenets be punished with death. Let all such books and papers, as contain any of the damnable opinions of Eutyches or Apollinarius, be burnt, that all the remains of their impious perverseness may perish with the flames ; for it is but just, that there should be a proportion- able punishment, to deter men from these most outrageous im- pieties. And let all the governors of our provinces, and their deputies, and the magistrates of our cities, know, that if, through neglect or presumption, they shall suffer any part of this most religious edict to be violated, they shall be condemned to a fine of ten pounds of gold, to be paid into our treasury ; and shall incur the further penalty of being declared infamous. " Given at Constantinople, in the Ides " of August, and the Consulate of " Constantius and Rufus."
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION. 69
At the same time that they pubhshed these cruel laws, the authors of them would fain be thought, to offer no violence to conscience. This same emperor Martian, in another epistle to the Archimandrites of Jerusalem, at the end of the acts of the synod of Chalcedon, says, " Such, therefore, is our clemency, that we use no force with any one, to compel him to subscribe or agree with us, if he be unwilling : for we would not, by terrors and violence, drive men even into the paths of truth." Who would not wonder that they should thus seek to colour over their cruelties ? A doctrine is forbidden to be learnt or taught, under the severest penalties, which those ought to think themselves obliged to profess, who are persuaded of the truth of it ; and those who do profess it, are, for that reason, exposed to many punishments ; and yet the authors of such punish- ments would still be thought to offer no violence to conscience. But I would • fain know, for what end are all these penalties against heretics ordained ? For no other surely, but that men may be deterred, by the fear of them, from meeting together, and openly professing themselves, or teaching others those doc- trines, which they think themselves obliged, in conscience, both to profess and propagate; and that, being at length quite tired out by these evils, they may join themselves to the esta- blished churches, and at least profess to believe their received opinions. But this is to offer violence to conscience, or to force men, by the fear of punishments, not to profess what they be- lieve, or to pretend to belieye what they do not; neither of which can be done, but in opposition to the voice and dictates of conscience.
r The constitution of Theodosius was in rnuch severer terms, which is extant in the code of Theodosius,* in which we read thus: " Farther, we ordain, that whosoever shall persuade or force a slave, or freeman, to forsake the worship of the Christian religion, and join himself to any accursed sect or rite, let him. be punished with loss of fortune and life." And a little after, " Let him first incur the forfeiture of his goods, and afterwards be condemned
* Tit. de Judaeis, 1. 1. and lib. 16. tit. 6. 1. 75.
70 HISTORY OF THE IXaUISITIOX.
to the loss of life, who, by false doctrine, shall pervert any one from the faith/'^
This law so pleases Simanca, that he congratulates himself on its being made by an emperor that was a Spaniard ; for, after having recited it, he adds : " A law truly worthy of an emperor that was a Spaniard V as though it was the glory of Spain to exceed all nations in cruelty; audits honour, even in former ages, to have been as remarkable for using severer me- thods of punishments in this world to miserable heretics than others, as they have been since for the barbarities practiced by ^ the bloody tribunal of the Inquisition. The emperors Honorius and Theodosius also,^ '' If any one shall be discovered to have rebaptized any of the ministers of the Catholic party, let him be put to death ; both the person guilty of this execrable im- piety, (if he be of an age capable of guilt) and the party se- duced by liim.""
It is true, these were laws made by the civil magistrate, but that they were pubhshed with the approbation, and at the insti- gation of the bishops, no one can doubt, who compares our times with the ancient. The bishops could not bear that their decrees and anathemas should be slighted as insignificant and harmless flashes. They would fain have all condemned by their sentence, appear to be justly condemned ; and ea'gerly thirsted after the mitres and churches of those whose doctrines they were pleased to anathematize.
•V«%/WVV^V%'V«>
CHAP. IV.
The AniAN Persecutions of the Orthodox.
BUT neither did the Arians, when they had an emperor of their own party, refrain from any sort of cruelty, but persecuted
* Simanc. Tit. 46, $ 48. ^ Cod. de Sanct. Baptisma iteratur, 1. 2.
HISTOKY OF THE INQUISITION. 71
those, by whom they had been deprived, with a more implaca- ble and bloody hatred. The persecutions against Athanasius, their principal adversary, are notorious to all. Athanasius him- self, in his letter to the hermits, gives us many instances of their cruelty, wliich is the burthen of his epistle; and aggravated, as far as words can do it, viz. that they scourged the bishops in Egypt, and bound them \nth cruel chains ; that they sent Sarapammo into banishment, and beat Potammo in so barba- rous a manner on his back, that he was left for dead, and died soon after of his bruises and pain;* that they would not suflPer a dead woman to be buried;^ that they ejected many bishops from their sees, and sent them into banishment ; and that they obtained an edict from the emperor, that the bishops should not only be banished from the cities and churches, but even punished wdth death wherever they could be found. And he adds: " That so dreadfully were men terrified by them, that some pretended to beUeve their heresies; and others, t|irough fear, chose rather to fly into de^i'ts than fall into their hands.''^ In another place he says : " How many bishops were brought before governors and kings, and heard this sentence from their judges, ' Either subscribe, or depart from your churches ^ — for the emperor hath commanded you shall be banished from your churches.' How many, in every city, scattered themselves up and down, for fear of being accused as the bishop's friends/ For the magistrates were written to, and commanded, upon penalty of a fine, to compel the bishops of their respective cities to subscribe. In fine, all places and cities were filled with ter- rors and tumults; for violence was offered to the bishops, and the judges saw the mournings and sighs of the people." And at length, after a tragical account of the various cruelties and persecutions of the Arians, he adds: " That they would not suffer the friends of those they had slain, to bury their dead bodies, but hid them in private places, that thereby they might conceal their murders.''^ There are other passages to the same purpose, in the same epistle.
« Simanca, tit. 49. $ 14- p. 814. " Ibid, p. 821. ^ Ibid, p. 829.
" Ibid, p. 859.
F 4
72 HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Victor also relates several kinds of cruelty practised by Hu- nerick, the Arian king of the Vandals, in Africa ; but it would be too tedious to recount them all. It is enough to add, that some had their tongues cut out, others their hands, others their feet chopt off, others their eyes dug out, and others were mise- rably slain through the extremity of their tortures ;» and Am- mianus MarcelHnus, an heathen writer, describing those times, relates of Juhan the emperor,^ " That he ordered the Christian bishops and people that were at variance with each other, to come into his palace, and there admonished them, that they should every one profess his own religion, without hindrance or fear, whilst they did not disturb the public peace by their di- visions; which he did for this reason, because as he knew their liberty would increase their divisions, he might now have nothing to fear from their being an united people; having found by experience, that even beasts are not so cruel to men, as the generality of Cliristians are to each other.
CHAP. V.
Tlie Opinion of some of the Fathers concerning the Persecu- tion o^ Dissenters.
WHAT the opinions of those ancient doctors of the church, called Fathers, was, we may learn from their writings. Athanasius, in his epistle to the hermits, speaks in this manner of the Arians, and thus points out their persecutions against the orthodox -." " That Jewish heresy hath not only learnt to deny Christ, but also to dehght in slaughters. But even this was not sufficient to satisfy them. For as the father of their heresy goes about as a roaring hon, seeking whom to devour, so these, having liberty to go up and down, run about, and whomsoever they happen to meet with, who either blame their
• See also Hist. Tripart. b. 6. c 32, and b. 4. c. 39. b B. 22. *= Hist. Eccles. 1. 7. c 2. p. 821.
HISTORY OF THE INaUISITION. 73
flight, or abhor their heresy, inhumanly tear them with scourges, or bind them with chains, or banish them from their native country.""
In this and the Uke manner, Athanasius, whilst persecuted by the Arians, largely and pathetically argues, condemning persecution of every sort, upon the score of religion, and freely pronouncing it the invention of the devil. And yet we do not find, that this same Athanasius made the least intercession with the emperor Con stan tine, when the Nicene Synod was ended, to prevent the banishment of Arius and his followers; no, nor one single word to shew that he even disapproved of Arius's banish- ment; through a too common weakness of mind, whereby men ai*e apt to think, that the same thing done to them by others would be most unjust, that would not be unjust in them to do to others.
Hilarius, against Auxentius the Arian, shews, with equal eloquence, his detestation of cruelty towards men differing in their religious sentiments. " And first, I cannot help pitying the misfortune of our age, and lamenting the absurd opinions of the present times ; according to which, human arts must support the cause of God, and the church of Christ be defended by methods of secular ambition. I beseech you, O ye bishops, who believe yourselves to be such, what helps did the apostles make use of in propagating the gospel ? What powers assisted them ir preaching Christ, and converting all nations from idols to Goc,!.^ Had they any of the nobles from the palaces joined \rith jthem, when they sang hymns to God in prison and in chain^u and after they had been cruelly scourged.? Did Paul gathe I the church of Christ by virtue of the royal edict, when he [. Ipself was made a spectacle in the public theatre ? Was the;f i^jlcaching of the divine truth protected by Nero, Vespa- ^He lab* Decius, which flourished by means of their very hatred t*favoi^"S.?^'
not ho\^^^^^ ^^s^ taught the same doctrine. " The apostles are nations ^^^^^^^<^ to take rods in their hands, as Matthew writes, atrainst^ a rod', but an ensign of power, and an instrument of the inwH^ ^^ instrument of vengeance, to inflict pain ? And, t, the disciples of an humble master, I say of an humble [for in his humility/ his Judgment was taken from him^
74 HISTORY OF THE INaUlSITION.
can only perform the duty he hath enjoined them by offices of humility : for he sent persons forth to sow the faith, who should not force men but teach them; not exercise power, but exalt the doctrine of humility.""^ And a little after he adds : " When the apostles would have had fire from heaven, to consume the Samaritans, who would not receive our Lord Jesus into their city, he turned about and rebuked them, saying, ' Ye know not what spirit ye are of; for the son of man is not come to destroy men's hves, but to save them.' "
Gregory Narianzen evidently shews himself to be of the same sentiment, although he hath not handled this argument pro- fessedly : for having observed, that men were not easily and at once, but slowly and gradually, brought off from idolatry to the law, and from the law to the gospel ; and having considered the reason of it, he thus speaks : " And why is it thus ? Be- cause we are to know, that men are not to be driven by force, but to be drawn by persuasion. For that which is forced is not last- ing; this even the waves teach us, when they are repelled by vio- lence; and the very plants, when bent contrary to their na- ture. That which is voluntary is both more lasting and safe. This is agreeable to the divine equity ; the other an in&tance of tyranny." So that he did not think it just even to do good to men against their will, or without their consent.
Optatus Milevitanus, writing against Parmenianus, th»e Dona- tist, vindicates the church from the charge of persecut/ing dis- senters from it. \
What was Chrysostom's sentiment in this affair, he iVimself sufficiently declares in his sermon about excommunicatiorJSvhere he thus inveighs against those, who pronounced otg^^^s ac- cursed : — " I see men, who understand not the geni^j^^^ense, nor indeed any thing of the sacred writings, who,, p/^^ by other things, I am not ashamed to own, are furi^^ ^i^ ^"^:;rs, quarrelsome, who know not what they say, nor ;ward ^^"^y affirm; bold and peremptory in this one thing, ev Am^ ^"^'"^^ articles of faith, and declaring accursed, diings inot coj^' ^". ^ not. Upon this account we have become the What ij ^ mies of our faith, who look upon us as perso power, J regard to virtue, and never learnt to do good tlierefoj
* Comment, in Luc. 1. 7^ in c. 10 ^^^
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION. 75
flicted and grieved for these things!" And afterwards, citing that place of St. Paul, *' The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle,"'' &c. he goes on : " Entice him with the bait of compassion, and thus endeavour to draw him out from destruc- tion, that being thus delivered from the infection of his former eiTor, he may live, and thou mayest delivei' thy soul. But if he obstinately refuses to hear, witness against him, lest thou be- come guilty; only let it be with long-suffering and gentleness, lest the Judge require his soul at thy hand. Let him not be hated, shunned, or persecuted, but exercise towards him a sincere and fervent cliarity."
St Jerome is of the same mind, who, in his sixty-second letter to Theophilus, against John of Jerusalem, thus speaks :— " The church of Christ was founded on the bloody sufferings and pa- tience of its first professors, and not on their abusing and injur- ing others ; it grew by persecutions, and triumphed by martyr- doms."
■v^w^^^^-wv^
CHAP. VI.
St. Augustine's Opinion concerning the Persecution of Heretics.
AUGUSTINE, in his former writings, condemned all vio- lence upon the account of rehgion; for, writing against the fundamental epistle of Manichaeus, he begins with this address to the Manichaeans: — " The servant of the Lord ought not to strive, &c. It is, therefore, our business willingly to act this part. God gives that which is good to those who willingly ask it of him. They only rage against you, who know nothing of the labour that is necessary to find out truth, or the difficulty of avoiding errors. It is they who rage against you, whg know not how uncommon and difficult it is to overcome carnal imagi- nations by the calmness of a pious mind. It is they who rage against you, who are ignorant hoAv liard it is to heal the eye of the inward man, so that it can behold its Sun ; not that sun whose
a 2 Tim. it. 24,25, 20.
76 HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
celestial body you Avorship, and which iiTadiates the fleshly eyes of men and beasts, but that of which the prophet writes, * The sun of righteousness is risen on me ;' and of which we read in the Evangehst, * He was the true light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world.' Th.ey rage against you, who know not that it is by many sighs and groans we must attain to a small portion of the knowledge of God. Lastly, they rage against you, who are not deceived with that error, into which they see you are fallen. But as for myself, I, who after long and great fluctuation, can at last perceive, what is that sincerity which is free from all mixture of vain fable, cannot by any means rage against you, whom I ought to bear with, as I was once borne with myself, and to treat you with the same patience that my friends exercised tow^ards me, when I was a zealous and bhnd espouser of your error.
But afterwards, upon his sharp and long disputes with the Donatists; such is the fluctuation of the human mind, and with so much inconstancy, sometimes have the best feelings been associated, that he &o far altered his opinion, as that he did not disapprove of, but was actually for inflicting all punish- ments, which did not cut off the hopes of repentance, i. e. all manner, death only excepted; that being terrified by them, they mjght be compelled to embrace the orthodox faith ; which he hath shewn in a few words, in his second book of Retrac- tations.^ " I have two books entitled, Against the Donatists : In the first I declared, that I did not approve that schismatical persons should be compelled to communion by any secular power. The reason was, because I had not then experienced what great mischief would ai'ise from their impunity, or how much good disciphne would conduce to their conversion.
From some further passages it appears clear, that Austin approved of the punishment ordained by civil laws against the erroneous, as that they ought not to make wills, nor buy and seE, nor receive legacies, but that they should be sent into banishment. And to shew that he thought this punishment just upon the Donatists and Rogatians, he adds : " The terror of temporal powers, when it opposes the truth, is a glorious
» Cap. 5.
HISTORY OF THE IXaUISITION. 77
trial to the good and resolute, but a dangerous temptation to the weak. But when it inculcates tlie truth upon the errone- ous and schismatical, to ingenuous minds it is an useful admo- nition, but to the foolish it proves an unprofitable affliction." There is no power but what is of God, and he that resisteHi the power, resisteth the ordinance of God : for princes are not a terror to them that do well, but to those who do ill. Wilt thou not therefore fear the power ? Do well, and thou shalt have praise from it, " For if the power favouring the truth corrects any one, he w^ho is made better by it hath praise from it: or if, in opposition to the truth, it rages against any one, he who is crowned conqueror hath praise from it. But as for thee, thou dost not well that thou shouldest not fear the power." And to make this appear, he largely refutes theii* opinions, and then thinks he hath evinced the justice of the per- secution raised against them.
The only punishment he would have Heretics exempted from is death. Hence in his epistle to Cresconius the Gram- marian,^ he saith: '' No good men in the Catholic church are pleased, that any one, even an Heretic, should be punished with death." But as to all other methods of persecution, Austin is so far from being against them, that he recommends them, as a remedy proper for the extirpation of Heresies, Hence in his first book agahist Gaudentius,^ he says : " G^ for- bid that this should be called persecuting men, when it is only a persecuting their vices, in order to dehver them from the power of them; just as the physician treats his distempered patient.
This then is the so much admired clemency of Austin, that he interceded with the proconsuls, that the Donatists should not be punished with death ; whilst at the same time he not only approved of all other penalties except deatli, such as banishment, the denying them power to make wills, to in- herit their patrimony, or to receive what was left them by others, of making contracts, buyhig and seUing, and the like ; but he himself accused them to the proconsuls, that if they persisted in these opinions, they might suffer these pu- nishments.
• B. 3 cap. 50. *• Cup. s.
78 HISTORY OF THE INaUISITION.
If any one will compare these things with the former opinion of Austin, he may justly cry out, Oh how much is Austin changed from himself, who mindful of his own former error, from which he was not recovered, but by the great patience of his friends, was against using methods of cruelty, even towards the Manichaeans. But now he approves of all punishments against the Donatists, death only excepted, that they may be compelled into the Catholic church, even against their wills, under a pretence that at last they may voluntarily remain in her communion.
And indeed, all who since Austin have taught that Heretics are to be persecuted, and even punished with death, have made use of no authority more than Austin's; and to shew how highly they esteem his authority, they use his argmnents as the very strongest, though in themselves absurd, and mani- festly contrary to Scripture, to defend a doctrine so absolutely repugnant to the nature of Christianitv\ From him they have borrowed the distinction, that it is unlawful for Heretics to persecute the church, but the duty of the church to persecute Heretics. This is now become the common exception of all the murderers of Heretics, with which every one armed with the secular power, under a specious pretence, persecutes and oppresses those who differ from him: this is the principal argument by which the Papists defend themselves, when they would justify their own persecution of Heretics, and condemn all others that persecute them.
Thus we see, that Christians by this idle doctrine, have departed from their original simplicity and meekness ; and that in the room of mutual love, by which all the faithful were of one heart and one soul, there have succeeded in the church of Christ, not only discords, contentions, hatreds and enmities, but slaughters, and the worst of cruel butcheries.
HISTORY OF THE INaUISITION. 79
CHAP. VII.
The Persecutions of the Popes against Heretics.
IN the following ages the affairs of the church were so managed under the government of the Popes, and all persons so strictly curbed by the severity of the laws, that they durst not even so much as whisper against the received opinions of the church. Besides this, so deep was the ignorance that had spread itself over the world, that men, Avithout the least regard to knowledge and learning, received with a blind obe- dience every thing that the ecclesiastics ordered them, however stupid and superstitious, without any examination ; and if any one dared in the least to contradict them, he was sure immedi- ately to be punished ; whereby the most absurd opinions came to be established by the violence of the Popes. It was at this time that the doctrine of transubstantiation was introduced into the church, now, in every thmg, subject to the Pope's controul ; and how dangerous it was to oppose it, we may learn from the instance of Berengarius of Tours, archdeacon of Angiers, who, teaching that the bread and wine in the supper, was only the figure of the body and blood of the Lord, was condemned as an Heretic, by Leo IX. in a synod at Rome and Vercellae, in the year 1050, and five years after, viz. 1055, was forced to recant, and to subscribe with his own hand to the faith of the Roman church, and confirm it with an oath, by Victor II. in the council of Tours. But as Berengarius's recantation was forced ; and as he afterwards defended that opinion, which in his heart he believed, Nicolaus II. called a council at the Lateran, A. D. 1059, and there again condemned Berengarius, and compelled him to make "a solemn abjuration, which Berengarius publicly read, and signed with his own hand. This was the famous ab- juration, which begins, " Ego Berengarius.'" Thus was the truth suppressed by the papal violence. In the East also, A. D. 1118, one Basilius, the author of the sect of the Bongomili, was publicly burnt for Heresy by the command of Alexius Com- tienus the emperor, as Baronius relates, A. D. 1118.='
* Sec. 27.
80 HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
In the mean time the power of the Roman pontiff grew to a prodigious height, and began to be very troublesome, even to the emperors themselves , for not content with the ecclesiastical power, they clai)ned also the subjection of the seculai'. But in the midst of this thick darkness, some glimmerings of light broke forth through the great mercy of God.
For after the year of Christ, 1100, there arose various dis- putes between the emperors and popes, about the Papal power in secular affairs, which, as they were managed with great warmth, gave occasion to many more strictly to examine that unbounded power which the popes of Rome claimed to them- selves. Some of the emperors bravely maintained their rights against the Papal encroachments, and were supported, not only by the arms and forces of generals and princes, but by bishops and divines, who strenuously wrote in their defence. This encouraged many others to oppose that unbounded au- thority, which the popes assumed in matters of faith, who not only argued that they were capable of erring, as well as the other bishops, but actually pointed out and censured their many errors and abuses of their unhmited power: all these the court of Rome branded with the infamous name of Here- tics, and would have sacrificed to the public hatred.
They appeared first in some parts of Italy, but principally in Milan and Lombardy: and because they dwelt in dif- ferent cities, and had their particular instructors, the Papists, to render them the more odious, have represented them as different sects, and ascribed to them as different opinions, though others affirm they all held the same opinions, and were entirely of the same sect. The truth is, that from the oldest accounts of them we shall find, that they did not all hold the same tenets, and were not of the same sect ; though neither their opinions nor sects were so many and different as the Papists represent. The principal of them were Tanchelinus, Petrus de Bruis, Petrus Abailardus, Amaldus Brixianus, whose opinion Earonius calls the heresy of the pohticians, Hen- dricus, and others, who preached partly in Italy, and partly in France, about the country of Thoulouse ; and because after- Wards the greater number of them propagated their opinions
HISTORY OF TIJE INQUISITION. 81
in the province of Albigeois, in Langiiedoc, and gathered there large and numerous churches, who openly professed their faith ; they were stiled Albigenses.
CHAP. VIII.
Of the Albigenses and Waldenses.
ABOUT the same time the Waldenses,^ or the poor men of Lyons,^ appeared at Lyons, whose original hath been largely shewn by the most reverend and learned Usher, Archbishop of Armagh, in his book De Successione, &c. I shall therefore only enquire, whether the Waldenses and Al- bigenses were the same people, according to the common opinion of Protestants, or different from one another. It can- not be doubted but that they had some opinions in common. But there is nothing more evident, than that there was amongst them a great variety of doctrines, and difference of rites and customs, as appears from the book of the sentences of the In- quisition at Tholouse, which I have published, in which are to be found many of the sentences pronounced against the Albigenses and Waldenses, which discover some very curious and uncommon things, concerning their doctrines and rites ; and which are such evident proofs of their difference in opi- nions and customs, that from the reading of a few lines, one may easily know whether the sentence pronounced was against the Albigenses or Waldenses ; which manifest difference hath induced me to believe that they were two distinct sects ; though I have hitherto been in the common opinion, that they were but one.
However, it is not to be doubted, but that oftentimes then- enemies gave very vile and odious accounts of the doctrines they held; as will appear by comparing the several places in
a An ecclesiastical term, signifying the iohabitants of the vallies. b Being stripped of all their property, and reduced by persecution, to ex- treme poverty.
82 HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
wliicli they describe them. For the same opinion, which in one place appears extremely erroneous ; in another, when it is more fully explained, and Avithout spite, is harmless enough ; of which the single instance of the resurrection of the dead is full proof For sometimes the Albigenses are accused, that " they deny the resurrection of human bodies ;" as though they quite denied the resurrection of the dead ; which yet in another place is more distinctly explained thus, that " the dead shall rise with spiritual bodies.'' And that their opinions have been misrepresented elsewhere, there can be no doubt, and it will appear upon a comparison of the several places, wherein they are recorded. But that the opinions of the Albigenses and Waldenses were very different, cannot be denied. For if they had held the same, no reason can be assigned, why differ- ent ones should have been ascribed to them. One would rather be inchned to believe, that as their persecutors greedily sought after every occasion to punish them, they would have fastened on every one of them all the heretical opinions of the Waldenses and Albigenses; that so, being burdened with numerous crimes, the inquisitors might seem to have the more just pretence for condemning them.
The popish writers, indeed, charge these people with many of the grossest crimes. It may however, be justly con- cluded, that many of those impious tenets that are ascribed by Baronius, Bzovius, and others, to the Albigenses and Waldenses, were invented out of mere hatred to them, and to render them detestable to the people; especially that im- pious opinion, which Eymericus^ imputes to the Waldenses : " That it is better to satisfy a man's lust by any act of uncleanness whatsoever, than to be perpetually burning; and that (as they say and practice) it is lawful in the dark for men and women to lie promiscuously with one an- other, whensoever, and as often as they have the inclination and desire." ^ For if this had been their tenet, would there
* Direct. Inqnis. par. 2 quaes. 14.
b The extreme injustice of this imputation is evident from the apology of
those oppressed people, in which they deliver their sentiments on this subject
in the following striking words : " It was this vice that led David to procure the
death of his faithful servant, that he might enjoy his wife j — and Amnon to
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION. 83
not have been one of that vast number of prisoners, that they condemned to such various punishments, to be found, that was infected with it ? Or, if it could have been proved upon them, was the equity, Iiumanity, and compassion of the inqui- sitors so very great, as to have concealed a crime, that would have been condemned by the common voice of mankind, and exposed those that were guilty of it to the most severe punish- ment and death ? Would they, by such a method of acting, have given the world occasion to censure them for persecuting, and cruelly punishing men merely for the sake of holding opinions different from the Roman faith, though consistent with a due regard to a good conscience, when at the same time they might have accused them of so horrid an impiety ? If they had been really such execrable persons, their crimes ought to have been publicly exposed ; and thus they themselves would have sunk under the weight of infamy, and their prosecutors would liave been so far from being charged as bloody inquisitors, that they would have deserved universal applause.
Hence we may learn what credit is to be given to popish writers, when they give us an account of the opinions and practices of those they call Heretics. It is then- way to charge all that separate from their communion with impurity and lust, as though the only cause of their leaving the communion of the church of Rome, \)vas a dishonourable and vile love of women ; and they have most impudently dared to reproach with this vice, persons who have been remarkable for their chastity and conti- nence. In the mean while, nothing is more notorious, than that their monks and priests, who are forjbid the remedy of a chaste and honourable matrimony, abandon themselves without shame to the most impure embraces, and infamously wallow in carnal
defile his sister Tamar. This vice consumes the estates of many, as it is said of the prodigal son, \vho wasted his substance in riotous living. Balaam made choice of this vice to provoke the children of Israel tosiu, which occa- sioned the death of twenty-four thousand persons. This sin was the occasion of Samson's losing his sight — it perverted Solomon, — and many havr pewshed through tlio beauty of a woman. The remedies for tliis sin are fasting, prayer, and keeping at a distance from it; otlier vices may be subdued by fighting, in this we conquer by flight, of wiiicli vre have an example in Jo- seph.—Perrins Hist. Ch. IV. in Jones's Waldcnscs.
Q 2
84 HISTORY OF THE INaUISITION.
pleasures. Erasmus,* says ; " There is a certain German bishop, who declared publicly at a feast, that in one year he had brought to him 11000 priests that openly kept women:" for they pay annually a certain sum to the bishop. This was one of the hundred grievances that the German nation proposed to the Pope's nuncio at the convention at Nuremberg, in the years 15^2 and 1523. Grievance 91. " That the bishops in most places, and their officials, not only suffer the priests to keep women, so they pay a certain sum of money, but even force the chaster priests, who live without women, to pay the price of those that keep them; alledging, that the bishop wants money, and that those priests who pay it may either remain single, or keep women as they please. How wicked a thing this is, every one understands."/ The same Erasmus, in his account of the errors of Bedda, ^ hath the following passage ; " What wonder if some nuns in the age of St. Austin are said to have married, when in this age, there are said to be so many monasteries that are nothing better than public stews, and more that are private ones. Even in those where the rules are more strict, there are many instances of impurity. This I re- late with grief, and I wish it was not true." And a Httle after; " I know some, that have buried in the monasteries the girls they have seduced, that the affair might be hushed up. And= Bedda," says he, " cries out gloriously, God forbid, God forbid, that any man should be admitted to the dignity of the priesthood, who doth not wholly deny him- self carnal embraces, though at this day there are some to be found who keep fifty women, not to add any thing worse." And** concerning the prohibition of flesh: " amongst the priests, how scarce is the number that live chaste ? I speak of those who keep pubhcly at home their women, instead of wives ; for I will not mention the mysteries of their more secret crimes: I speak of those things only that are well known to every one." But the instance he gives,"^ is yet more execrable : That a cer- tain Dominican professor of divinity, whose name was John,
* Tom. 9. page 401. •^^Toni. 9. page 484. " Page 569. " Page 985. ' Page 1380.
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION. 85
mentioned to him at Antwerp, in the house of Nicholas of Middlebourge, a physician, a divine of Lovain, who told him, that he refused to give absolution to a certain confessor of the Nuns, because he had acknowledged he had had criminal famiharity with 200 of them. But what need is there of pro- . ducing testimonies out of particular authors ? The very laws of the Inquisition, which ordain punishments for those priests, who solicit not only women, but, what is much more horrid ble, even boys, in the sacrament of confession, are an unc deni- able proof that these crimes are too frequent and common in that state of impure celibacy.^ So that, having theii' own minds insnared with the lusts of the flesh, and their eyes,
a If those who prescribe celibacy mean to consider that as chastity which consists merely in not supporting a wife, and not contributing to the popula- tion of the state, by becoming fathers and instructors of children; if they call that chastity, which has prescribed celibacy to them, in order that they may be free from the troubles and cares of a family, which impel most men to greater assiduity and economy in their domestic affairs, and, of course, constitntes a kind of life more active, regular, and virtuous, we may, in these cases, certainly allow that they practise chastity. But if we are to understand the word chastity in the same sense as the ecclesiastics consider it in their pulpits, then the justice of their claim to chastity may very easily be decided, by the experience and knowledge almost every one must have of ecclesiastical virtues. I should be ashamed to relate the proofs which I could produce from history, on this point, without going further than the lives of the popes, who, it might be presumed, should have been equally exalted in virtue as in dignity. Alexander VI. alone would furnihh me with supera- bundant particulars.
But least it might be said, that the corruption of the ecclesiastics in our
times has nothing to do with the purity of those fathers who established the celibacy of the clergy, it will be proper to observe, that when the general council of Constance was celebrated, in 1444, no picture of the virtuous pa- radise of Jesus Christ was to be observed in that city ; on the contrary, the city of Constance presented a perfect image of Mahomet's paradise. Spa- nenberg says,* that the city of Constance was then honoured by the presence of 34^ aichbishops and bishops, 564 abbots and doctors, and 7000 prosti- tutes ! who followed the fathers of the council ; without reckoning the con- cubines, whom the same holy fathers had about their persons. It is clear, that if these tenacious defenders of celibacy had been married, these prosti- tutes would not have followed them. But— oh inconsistency '.—in this very council the cehbacy of the clergy was definitively decreed.
Da Costa's Narrative, v. i. 116. ♦ Epist. ad. Cor. p. 252.
«3
86 HISTORY 6r THE INaUISITION.
as the scripture expresses it, fidl of adultery^ like the gene- rality of mankind, they judge of others by tliemselves, and insinuate that the only, at least the chief cause of forsak- ing the church of Rome, is the immoderate love of women : whereas, if they were not actuated by the principles of a good conscience, but from impure inclination, they might with much more safety abide in the communion of the church of Rome, where they have daily occasions offered to them of fulfilling the lusts of the flesh : and where they have nothing to fear, even from the bloody tribunals of the Inquisition. This for once to refute the calumnies of the Papists, who, when- ever they are giving an account of the rise of any of those they call Heretics, are perpetually repeating this chai-ge against them. But to return to our purpose :
As to the question whether the Albigenses and Waldenses, were one or two different sects. To speak my own mind freely, they appear to me to have been two distinct ones ; and that they were entirely ignorant of many tenets, that are now ascribed to them. Particularly the Waldenses* seem to
* Omitting the fables of the Popish writers respecting this, persecuted people, it may be acceptable to extract a confession of their faith, from a late publication, intitled, " The History of the Waldenses," by W. Jones, — a work of much curious