LIBRARYOFPRiNCETON I. JAN - 7 2003 IHEOLOGiCALSEMlNARY A HISTORY CHURCH OF CHRIST; FROM ITS INSTITUTION TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY; IN WHICH ARE TRACED THE RISE AND PROGRESS CORRUPTION AND REFORMATION. BY THOMAS GAILLARD. Baltimore: PRINTED AT THE PUBLICATION ROOMS, NO. 7, SOUTH LIBERTY STREET. 1846. UmTED STATES OF AMERICA : Southern District of Alabama. — Be it remembered, that on this nineteenth day of May, Anno Domini one tiiousand eight hundred and forty-six, Thos. Gaillard, of said District, hath deposited in this Office the title of a Book, which is in the words following to wit: " A History of the Church of Christ from its Institution to the begin- ning of the Sixteenth Century, in which are traced the I'ise and progress of its coiruptiori and reformation'^ — the right whereof he claims as Author, in conformity to the Act, entitled An Act to amend the several acts respecting copy-rights,'' &c. JOHN FILLS, Clerk of Southern District of Alabama. The writer of the following pages claims not the credit of original- ity. The work which he presents to the public can assume no higher title than that of a faithful compilation of facts, drawn from the highest and most respectable authorities. If there be any merit in the labor, it must be found in the novelty of the arrangement in which the work has been composed. The history of the Christian Church has em- ployed the pen of ecclesiastical writers of every age since its first in- stitution ; and he who would now venture to add his contribution to a department in literature already so abundantly supplied with the rich stores of learning and science, must be aware that he assumes a posi- tion hazardous in itself, and Avhich exposes him to the suspicion, if not to the direct charge, of presumption. The subject, however, although not a neAV one, commands at present an increased interest from the peculiar circumstances of the times in which we live. The history of the Church of Christ is the history of Protestantism ; and upon Prot- estantism are founded our civil and religious liberties. When these are involved in a controversy, the subject becomes of vital importance. Two systems are arrayed against each other. The arena of the conflict is the moral world. The prize to be won is nothing less than the salvation of the immortal soul. The Christianity of the Bible, and the religion of Papal Rome are the antagonist SJ^stems ; and between them there is not, and cannot be, a middle ground of compromise and conciliation. The mystery of iniquity is insidiously at work — "even he, whose coming is after the worship of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteous- ness in them that perish." That there has already commenced a deadly struggle between the powers of the air, and the Church, none can doubt, who has been observant of the unwearied exertions every where made by Popery, to ensnare the unwary, and to increase the number of apostates from the true faith. "Unclean spirits lilce frogs have come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Witness the ominous signs in Ireland — the crafty designs and insidious machinations of the Puseyites, and the more bold and untiring efforts to obtain an ascendency in America. To whatever iv. PREFACE. section of the world we cast our eyes, we discover this arch enemy of Christ's kingdom secretly or openly laboring to engraft its corrupt sys- tem upon the institutions of the country. "In Ireland," says a distinguislred divine of the Episcopal church,' " where the theology of Dens is the recognized textbook of the Ro- man Catholic clergy, they will tell you, when there is any end to be gained, that popery is an improved, and modified, and humanized thing: whereas, all the while, there is not a monstrous doctrine broach- ed in the most barbarous of past times, which this very text-book does not uphold as necessary to be beheved, and not a foul practice devised in the midnight of the world, which it does not enjoin as necessary to be done." " In England," says White, •' it is the pohcy of Popery to persuade the world that the authority of the Pope is of so spiritual a nature, as, if strictly reduced to what the creed of the Papal church required, can never interfere with the civil duties of those who own that authority." In the United States, where rehgious liberty is bet- ter understood, and more practically enjoyed, than in any other portion of the globe — the Papists pronounce religiousin tolerance a detestable dogma. In Spain, where Popery maintains the ascendency, Protestant- ism is proscribed — and as recently as the year 1814, the Holy Inquisi- tion was re-established for the punishment of heresy. In South America, governments organized on repubUcan principles, but under the jurisdiction of the Roman pontifT — have copied the odious laws of Spain in the restriction of rehgious privileges. Such is the character of Poperj^. By such arts, it has succeeded but too effectually, not only in quieting the alarm of the people of this country, but in clothing itself with attractions which delude and fasci- nate. It holds out the forbidden fruit, and with the subtility of the serpent, says — " By tasting ye shall not surely die : but in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened ; and ye shall be as gods, know- ing good and evil." But let not Protestants be deceived by the pro- mise of peace and safely, and receive the Tempter into their bosoms. Popery boasts of its infaUibility, and prides itself upon its unchange- ableness. " The system is the same — intrinsically, inherently the same. It may assume different aspects to carry out different purposes, but this is itself a part of popery: there is the variable appearance of the chamelion, and the invariable venom of the serpent." (Mel- viU.) It was with the view of tracing the rise and progress of a power which, from the humble and unassuming character of a Presbyter of ' " Sermons by Henry Melvill." PREFACE. V. the Church of Christ, has opposed and exalted itself above all that is called God, or tliat is worshipped, that the following history of the Church was compiled. It may be objected, and with much appearance of correctness, that the Romish church has been noticed as a branch of the. Church of Christ, after it had lost every vestige of a Christian in- stitution. This arrangement was unavoidable. That it ceased to be a true and Apostolic Church, at least as early as the middle of the third century, must be conceded by all who will compare its government and rites with the constitution of the church as it proceeded from the hands of the apostles, and as preserved in their inspired writings. From that period the stream diverged from its accustomed channel. The Romish Church, after the conversion of Constantine, lost almost every feature of its original excellence; it had a name that it lived, but was dead. It remembered not from whence it had fallen, nor re- pented, and did its first works ; and Christ, the great head of the Church, removed its candlestick out of his place. It was then that the Apocalyptic woman, to whom were given two wings of a great eagle, fled into the wilderness, into her place, where she was nourished twelve hundred and sixty years. This was un- doubtedly the true Church: and it was against it that the corrupt hier- archy of Rome, or the mystical dragon, has ever since made war. The concession of the title of Christian to the Popish Church was made rather from courtesy to the admissions of a venerated and or- thodox branch of the Church of Christ, than from a conviction of the correctness of the application.' Ecclesiastical historians have gener- ally acquiesced in its pretensions to this title ; and this authority was considered a sufficient sanction for the concession. The Sacred Scriptures teach us — that there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; that neither is there salvation in any other : for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved — that the Gos- pel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that be- lieveth ; and that the holy scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus — that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight — that we are jus- tified freely by the grace of God, through the redemi)tioii that is in Jesus Christ — that Christ by one oflering (or sacrifice) hath perfected forever them that are sanctified — nor yet that he should oiFer himself often : but after he had offered one sacrifice for sins ; forever sat down 'Hooker calls tlio Olmrcli of Rome — " A part of tlic house of God, a limb of tlie visible Church of CiiriBl." VI. PREFACE. on the right hand of C4od — that we are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold ; but with the precious blood of Christ — that we beware lest any man spoil us through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ — and that we should let no man beguile us of our reward, in a voluntary humihty and worshipping of angels — these are the pre- cepts of the Bible. Popery teaches us — that Christians may do works of supereroga- tion ; or as Bellarmine has said — " a just man hath, by a double title, right to the same glory ; one by the merits of Christ imparted to him by grace, another by his own merits" — that sins may be pardoned by money ; or the doctrine of indulgences — that there are other mediators between God and man, besides Jesus Christ, such as saints and angels, and especially the Virgin Mary — that the scriptures do not contain all things necessary to salvation — that the word of God is obscure in some things essential to faith — that in the mass Jesus Christ is offered up by the priest a sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead — that prayers are to be addressed, and worship to be given to saints and an- o-els — that in the Lord's Supper, the bread and wine, are by consecra- tion, converted into the very body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ. It maintains^ — that faith is not to be kept with heretics — that heretics should be persecuted and destroyed — that the pope is the su- preme head of the church — that God has established in his Church one supreme infallible judge in matters of faith — ^that the souls of the faithful go to a place called Purgatory, to be cleansed of their sins be- fore they can enter heaven — that the people should not read the Scrip- tures' — that the cup should not be given to the laity in the Lord's Sup- per — that public prayers should be offered up in a language not un- derstood by the people — that every man must, without further exami- nation, submit his faith to the decisions of the Church. It appoints imao-es and pictures to be set up in places of worship ; and commands the people to bow down before them. It declares the Church of Rome to be the only true Church ; from which if a man separate he cannot be saved. Such are the tenets of a Church which claims to have been built upon the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone : having a form of godliness, but denying the power there- of: ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 'John cli.ipler 5tli, verse 39lli, — " Searcli the Pciiptures ; for in llicin 30 lliink yo have cturiiiil hfo: and they are they which testify of me." Sec also Acts, cliapler nth, verse lllh. CONTENTS ^^^iHi^ PART I. CHAPTER I. Covenant of Redemption — First Revelation of the plan of Re- demption — First visible Church of Christ — Expiatory sacrifice by- Abel — Type of Christ's Sacrifice — "The Sons of God;" the witness- es of the Truth — Noah's offering, and God's covenant with him of Mercy — Noah's offering; the foundation of sacrificial Worship — Knowledge of God preserved by tradition from Him — Evidences of this from Scripture and from profane History — God's covenant with Abraham — Church of Christ, and Circumcision instituted as a seal of Initiation — Covenant of Works renewed at Sinai — Forms of Divint^ Worship established — Coincidence of events before the Nativity of Jesus Christ — This event expected by all Nations — Predicted by the inspired Prophets — State of the Nations immediately preceding it — The Roman Empire — Virgil's Eclogue — Jews expected at that time a temporal Prince — Testimony of Pagan writers, 'facitus, Suetonius — Josephus refers to Vespasian's reign as the fulfillment of the Prophe- cies — Christ's Nativity — Appeared in the Temple — John the Bap- tist — Christ's Ministry — Prophecies of Daniel — The Twelve Disci- ples appointed — JeAvish Sects — Origin of them — The Sadducees — The Pharisees — The Scribes — The Herodians — The Disciples con- tended for pre-eminence — Rebuked by Christ — Christ Crucified — ^Daniel's Prophecies of the Messiah — Destruction of Jerusalem. From page 17 to 30. CHAPTER II. FIRST CENTURY. The Church of Christ — Its Foundation — No system of Church Government established by Him — Matthias chosen, and numbered with the eleven — The day of Pentecost — Descent of the Holy Ghost — Deacons appointed — Persecution of the Church by Saul — Peter cen- sured for visiting the Gentiles — Paul and Barnabas go to Antioch — Gospel by Mattliew — Apollos — Contribution from the brethren in An- tioch to those in Jerusalem sent by the hands of Paul and Barnabas — Elders first mentioned — Their character and office — Reference to the Jewish Synagogue — The terms. Bishop — Presbyter — Elder — Synony- mous — Authorities — Burnet, Paley, Dr. Holland, Dr. Reynolds, Lon- Vlll. • CONTENTS. don Christian Observer, Onderdonk, Polycarp's Epistle, and the in- spired writers — Ministerial Offices — The Apostles — Prophets — Evan- gelists — Pastors and Teachers — Paul and Barnabas ordained by cer- tain Prophets and Teachers, with prayer and laying on of hands — Controversy in Antioch on the observance of the Jewish rites — Refer- ence to Jerusalem — The decision of the Council — Peter's conduct to the Gentiles — Rebuked by Paul — No notice of Peter by the inspired writers after this intervicAV with Paul — Was Peter Bishop either of Antioch or of Rome ? — The Apostolic Churches — of Jerusalem, Anti- och, Alexandria and Rome — The doctrines which agitated the Church- es — Jewish Observances — Heathen opinions — The Magians — Nico- laitans — Cerinthians, Ebionites — Gnostics, their Origin — Sabianism — The Magi — Platonic Philosophy — Simonians—Docetae— Cerinthians — Logos, whence derived; how used by John — Labors of the Apos- tles — Peter never Bishop of Rome— Titles — Presbyter and Bishop proved to be convertible by the authority of the Fathers, Jerome, Ter- tullian, FirmiUian, Hilary, Theodore t — Opinion of Dr. Mosheim — The writings of the Fathers corrupted — The Forgeries and alterations in the chronicles of the Romish Church — The succession in the Apos- tleship — Duties of the Apostles — Rite of Ordination — Plurality of Bishops in the same city — Apocalypse. From page 30 to 66. CHAPTER III. SECOND CENTURY. The Church of Christ — A Society of Behevers — The term Oikos — No buildings for public worship before the third Century — Primitive Societies of Believers — First innovation in ecclesiastical Government — Sacerdotal character of the Members — Episcopal Presbyter— Provin- cial Assemblies — Provincial or diocesan Bishops — Form of Synagogue •worship obhterated — Jesus Christ the only High Priest — System of Temple worship inconsistent with that in the Christian Church — Con- troversy on the Paschal Feast — Administration of the Lord's Supper — The Platonics. THIRD CENTURY. Pre-eminence of the Bishops of Rome — Alexandria — Constantino- ple — Contentions between them for power — Their pride and extrava- gance — Clergy not forbidden to marry — Consequences of diocesan Episcopacy — Note, Christian Churches first erected — New rites and ceremonies introduced — Sacrament administered in both kinds — Bap- tism; its supposed regenerating influence — First intimations of Pur- gatory — Its Origin — Opinions of the character of Christ — Prayers of- fered up for departed Saints — Controversy on the doctrine of the Trinity — Decisions of Council contradictory — The learning and soph- istry of the age. from page 06 to 80. The dawn of the Reforma- tion — State of the Church — Novatian — Puritan Churches founded — Extended throughout the Provinces in Asia — Treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity ; orthodox — Novatian excommunicated. From page 80 to 83. CONTENTS. IX. CHAPTER IV. FOURTH CENTURY. Constantine, Emperor — Edict of toleration — His control over the Church — Forms in the election of a Bishop — Civil Commotion in Rome — Damascus and Ursicinus — Accumulation of power in the head of the Church — Title of Patriarch — The Exarchs — The Metropoli- tans — Admixture of Paganism with Christianity — The Pontiff — Ele- vation of the Host — Sacred relics — The Donatists — Arius, his doc- trines, &c., — Athanasius, opposed to them — First ecumenical council at Nice — Conflicting judgments of Councils — Nicene Creed — Arius excommunicated — Arius restored by Constantine — Athanasius deposed and banished — Alternate triumph of the parties — Second ecumenical council at Constantinople, by Theodosius — Patriarch of that city. From page 83 to 92. The progress of the Reformation — The Nova- tians, persecuted by Constantius — Macedonius — Aerius — His opposi- tion to Episcopacy — Opinions of the Fathers — His opposition to the superstitious rites of the Church — The extension of the Aerian churches in Europe and Asia — Novatians and Aerians witnesses of the truth. From page 92 to 94. FIFTH CENTURY. Western empire conquered by the Goths — The Heruii — Ostrogoths, &c., — The Church relapsed into Polytheism — Patriarch of Constan- tinople elevated to an equal rank with the Patriarch of Rome, by the fourth ecumenical council at Chalcedon — Maxim of the Romish Church — Forgeries, by Zosimus and Boniface — Spiritual warfare be- tween the Eastern and Western Patriarchs — Auricular Confession — Purgatory — Pelagius ; his doctrines — Title of the Virgin Mary — Nes- torius — Heresies of the Councils — Modern creed of Papists — Nestori- ans condemned — Council at Ephesus — Conventus Latronum. From page 94 to 100. The progress of the Reformation — Novatians perse- cuted — Vigilantius; his doctrines — Opposed by Jerome ; countenanced by many bishops. Page 100. CHAPTER V. SIXTH CENTURY. French monarch — Clovis — Columba goes from Ireland to Scotland — Internal state of the Church — Conflicting claims of the Patriarchs — Their true powers — Contentions in Kome for St. Peter's Chair — Sym- machus and Laurentius — Christianity is still more corrupted — Tem- ples to departed Saints — Purgatory — Gregory the Great — Remission of Sins — Conflicting decrees of Councils — Origen — Note, his doc- trines revived — The tenets of the Eutycheans, of the Monophysitcs — The Three Chapters — The pontiff Vigilius ; his contest with Justini- an ; his prevarications — Withdrawal of certain bishops from commu- nion with the Western Church — Controversy on the Trinity. From page 101 to 107. Progress of the Reformation — Approach of the Dark Ages — The Novatians in the East — Columba, the apostle of the CONTENTS. Picts — His doctrine — Founded his ecclesiastical system in lona — Gov- ernment of his church — Christianity; when planted in Ireland — Flour- ishing Culdee churches for many centuries in Scotland — English bishops ordained by Culdee presbyters. From page 107 to 113. SEVENTH CENTURY. Contest for supremacy between the Patriarch and Pontiff— Mahom- et — Pretended concession by Phocas to Boniface of the title of univer- sal bishop — Church under the control of the Emperors — Controversy on the human and divine natures in Christ — The Monothelites — Edict of Heraclius in favor of their doctrine — Confirmed by a council at Alex- andria. Honorius confirmed this judgment — Controversies; changes of opinion — Pontiff imprisoned in the island of Naxos by the Emper- or — Monothelites condemned by the ecumenical council at Constanti- nople — Certain canons of the supplemental council rejected by the Latin church— Records of Councils mutilated, and writings of the fathers— Corruption of the Church — Bishops and monks engaged in an angry controversy — Houses of public worship made asylums for fugitives from justice. From page 113 to 118. Progress of the Re- formation — The Culdees on the continent — Authority of the Pontiffs — The Paulicians revived — Not Manichaeans — Probably Novatians — so called from their attachment to the doctrines of the apostle Paul — The government of their church — Persecuted by Justinian II. From page 118 to 121. CHAPTER VI. EIGHTH CENTURY. Civil commotions in the Eastern empire— System of Philosoph}' — Political changes, unfavorable to the patriarch of the East, and advance the pretensions of the Roman pontiff— Pepin encouraged by Zacliary to depose Childeric — The exarchate of Ravenna vested in Stephen IL by Pepin — The epoch of the popes' temporal powers — Charlemagne- Concessions to him by Adrian — Clergy amenable to the civil authori- ties — Controversy about image worship — Continued for many years — Not sanctioned by the fathers — Made a part of the public service by the second council at Nice — Efforts of the emperors to abolish it — Controversy on the theological question of the procession of the Holy Ghost — The term Filioque inserted in the Latin translation of the canons, although not found in the original Greek records of the Coun- cils — Solitary mass introduced — Price of transgression — Superstitious dread of an excommimication — State of morals in the ('hurch. From page 121 to 128. Progress of the Reformation- The Culdees, or Scottish reformers, introduce scholastic divinity — Opposed by pope Zachary — The Paulicians — Their persecution renewed by the em- peror, Leo III. From page 128 to 129. NINTH CENTURY. Incursions of the Saracens— Charlemagne — The extent of his do- minions — Contentions between his successors — Instigated by the CONTENTS. XI. popes — Contributed to increase the temporal authority of the See of Rome — Forged canons — Concessions by Charles the Bald — Schism between the Eastern and Western churches — Ignatius and Photius — Image worship established through the influence of the popes — The empress Theodora — Council at Constantinople — Procession of the Holy Ghost — The elements in the eucharist— Opinions of the Fathers — Radbert and Bertram — Relics — Veneration for departed Saints — Trials by fire, cold-water, &c., — Intrigues and vices of the Pontiffs — Papissa Joanna. From page 129 to 136. Progress of the Reformation — The Paulicians — Their migrations from Asia — Persecutions by the emper- ors — Carbeas and Chrysocheir — Dispersion of the Paulicians — Clau- dius, bishop of Turin ; his ministerial labors and doctrines. From page 136 to 139. CHAPTER VII. TENTH CENTURY. Commencement of the Dark Age — Successions of the popes — Their profligacy — Theodora and her daughter Marozia — Otho the Great — Consequences of his death — The right of nomination to the papal throne by the emperors — Advance of the popes to power — Simony and concubinage, the prevailing vices of the clergy — Trafficing in ecclesi- astical preferments — Monks of Clugni. Froin page 139 to 144. Pro- gress of the Reformation — Paulicians in Europe — I'heir form of church government — Their copies of the sacred Scriptures — Their discipline. Page 145. ELEVENTH CENTURY. Crusades against the Saracens — The consequences — Instigated by the popes — Germanic empire — House of Saxony — Guelphs and Ghi- belins — The kingdom of France — Titles of Nobility — England — Wil- liam the Conqueror — His reply to Gregory VII., — The No mans in Italy — Robert Guiscard — Robert, king of France, excommunicated— Papal interdict — Heresy its Scriptural import — Consequences of an excommunication and interdict — Two cLiimants of the papal throne — Its usurpation by Benedict X., — The origin of parochial districts — Cardinals — The origin and character of the Office — Rights and privi- leges of the cardinal bishop — Form of electing a pope — Nicholas II , — Conflicting claims of Alexander II and Honorius II., — Flildebrand — Gregory VII., — Informally elected — His character, and high preten- sions — His plan of a supreme spiritual judicatory — His contest with Henry IV., — Feud il system— Investitures — Ring and crosi(^r — Tem- poral usurpations of the popes and bishops — Henry excommmiicated — His submission — Civil commotions in the empire — Rodolph elevated to the throne by Gregory — -Henry expelled Gregory from Rome, and substituted Clement — Contest between Clement and Victor — Intrigues of Matilda, the concubine of Gregory VII., — Council at Clermont — Its decree — Contest between the Greek and Latin churches — Legates sent to Constantinople by Leo IX., — Prohibition of the clergy from enter- ing into the bonds of wedlock — The schism in the Church — Contro- Xll. CONTENTS. versy in the Greek cliurch respecting' image worship — Doctrinal points of difference between the East and West — Controversy on the euchar- ist — Berencrer — Opinion of Gregory VII., — Attempt to introduce the Liturgy in the Latin tongue — System of scholastic Theology. From page 14.J to 164. Progress of the Reformation — The Paulicians — The period of their migration to Western Europe — Appeared in France — Their several titles after their migration — Identity of the No- vatians and Paulicians. From page 164 to 167. CHAPTER VIII. TWELFTH CENTUIIY. The Crusaders — Defeated and dispersed — The influence of the Crusaders on the political and ecclesiastical state of Europe — The popes acquired new powers — Three rival claimants of St. l^eter's chair — Schism in the Church — Innocent II. and Anacletus II. elected popes — Lucius killed — Civil commotions in Rome — Another contest for the papal chair — Alexander III. and Victor IV., — The Vatican and the Lateran ; explained (note) — Contest between Alexander and the em- peror Frederick Barbarossa — Frederick excommunicated — Controver- sy on the right of Investiture, between the pope and emperor — Pas- cal charged with treachery to the Church — Acknowledged his error, and submitted to the judgment of a council — Compromise of the con- troversy, between Calixtus II. and the emperor — Important change in the electoral college by pope Alexander — Lucrative traffic in Indul- gences — Idolatrous worship of the Virgin Mary and the Saints — The Apostle's Creed — Communion of Saints — Origin of Saint worship — The Psalter of the Virgin— Arrogance of Adrian IV., of Alexander III., of Celestine III., — Controversy on the Eucharist renewed. From page 164 to 179. Progress of the" Reformation — The Church in the Aviiderness (note) — The three Angels, and the two witnesses of the Apocalypse — The Albigenses in Fr mce — Several distinctive titles at- tached to the Paulicians — Misrepresentations of their character by po- pish writers — The antiquity of the Vaudois — Authorities referred to — Peculiar traits of their character — Their doctrines — Their form of church government — Their religious rites — Odious to the popish church — Peter de Bruis — His religious tenets — Martyred — His trea- tise on anti-Christ — Arnold of Brescia — Civil commotions in Rome — Personal violence inflicted on the popes — Pascal II., — Gelasius II., — Political and religious rclonnation attempted by Arnold — His success — Crucified and burnt — Henry from Mount Jura— Preached in France — Apprehended and im])risoned — Descrij)tion of Piedmont — Of Albige- sium — Extract from Gibbon — Albigenses condemned by successive councils, and persecuted — Refugees condemned, and cruelly punished in England — John of Lyons, or Peter Valdus — Preached the doctrines of the Vaudois in Lyonnois, &c., — Persecuted — Died in Bohemia — Persecution of the reformers. From page 179 to 194. CONTENTS. Xlll. CHAPTER IX. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. The popish church arrived at its highest point of elevation — Its pre- cension to universal dominion — Innocent III,, — His character — His arbitrary exercise of power — Controversy between C4regory IX. and the emperor Frederick II., — Revival of the Guelph and Ghibelin par- ties — Electoral College divided — The Roman See vacant three years — The pope entitled himself, "The Lord of the World" — Dissensions among the Cardinals ; and another interregnum — Boniface VIII. , — Another change in the mode of electing the popes — Maxims in the ec- clesiastical code — Compilation of the decrees — The Sext — 'I'he Clem- entines — The Extra vagantes — The Directorium Inquisilorum — The doctrine of transubstantiation made an article of faith — Consubstantia- lion of Paschasius — Erroneously adopted by Luther — The prayer-i)os- ture at the Lord's Supper introduced — Idolatrous — Efforts to establish universally the use of the Latin tongue in public worship — Progres- sive change of the Latin language in Europe — Efforts to withhold spiritual knowledge from the people — Waldo's translation of the Bi- ble — Opinion of the fathers on the use of an unknown language in public worship — Commission to inquire into heresy — The origin of the Inquisition — Council at Toulouse — College of the Sorbonne founded — Auricular confession made imperative — Forged documen s to further the pretensions of the popes — Encroachments of the popes on the spiritual rights of the bishops — The Jubilee — Controversy between the popes and the bishops on the right to presentation, &c., — Robert Grosstete — The Franciscans and Dominicans — Their contentions ; un- favorable to the Church — Contrast between the morals of the Romish church and the Reformers — Dispute between the mendicant Orders and the doctors of the Sorbonne — St. Amour — Internal dissensions among the Franciscans — "The everlasting Gospel" — The Spirituals — Their attack on the corruptions of the clergy — Dante the Poet — The Fratricelli. From page 194 to 21G. Progress of the Reformation — The Culdees in Scotland — Traced to the thirteenth century — Pied- mont — Savoy — Historical sketch — Languedoc — Provence — System of persecution — Europe. called upon by Innocent III. to exterminate her- esy — Castelnau the Inquisitor murdered — Count of Toulouse excom- municated — His territories put under an interdict — Crusade against the Albigenses — Desolations and murders — Siege of Bezieres — Its capture and the slaughter of its inhabitants — Carcassone — Languedoc a scene of devastation — The war renewed by Honorius III., — Mar- mande— Siege of Toulouse— The earl of Montfort killed — Louis VIII. king of France — Avignon — War terminated by the destruction or dis- persion of the Albigenses — The Inquisition — The Inquisitor Marpurg sent into Germany, and killed by the populace — Inquisition established in Arragon. From page 216 to 227. XIV. CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. FOURTEENTH CENTURY. Controversy beUveen the pope and the kings of England and France — The spiritual and temporal rights of the Church — Subsidies exacted by Edward— Pope's legate imprisoned by Philip — Letter of Boniface — Philip's reply — The three estates of the kingdom of France convened — Measures against the temporal usurpations of the pope — Philip excommunicated — His crown offered to the emperor Albert — Personal violence inflicted on Boniface — His death — Dante's Hell (note) — Consummation and decline of the papal power — Clement V. removed his seat to Avignon in France — The clergy more corrupt — Benedict revoked the papal bulls against Philip — Insecurity of the popes in the city of Rome — Civil government in that city — '^I'he See vacant two years — Again vacant soon after one year — Babylonish cap- tivity — Gregory II. returned to Rome — Great schism of the West — The church distracted and torn by factions for more than forty years — Causes of the decline of the papal power — Dante's Hell (note) — Traffic in Indulgences — Spiritual usurpations of the popes — Avarice of John XXII., — English statute of promisors — Statute of Praemunire — Spiritual benefices — Usurped by the popes — Statutes of Mortmain — Parliamentary enactments in England against the encroachments of the court of I?ome — Gallican church — Pragmatic sanction — Rise and progress of the privilege of clergy — Ecclesiastical courts — Their en- croachments on the civil tribunals — Contest between John XXII. and Lewis of Bavaria — Lewis excommunicated by John — John in his turn declared a heretic and driven out of Rome — The Spirituals of the Franciscan Order — Dissensions in the Church — The Brethren of the community — The Spirituals condemned and persecuted — These divi- sions favorable to the cause of Reformation — New festivals intro- duced — Superstitious infatuation in favor of the Franciscans. From page 227 to 240. Progress of the Reformation — The Lollards — Their several titles — Derivation of the name (note) — Walter the Lollard — Propagated his doctrines in England — Burnt afterwards as a heretic in Cologne — His followers in England persecuted — John Wickliffe — Adopted the tenets of Walter, and attacked the corruptions and vices of the clergy — Influence of his doctrines — liCgislative enactments against the acts of the popes — Religious opinions of Wickliffe — Lord Cobham, a disciple of Wickliffe — Persecuted and burnt — Huss of Bohemia — The government of England sustained the popish church, ahhough opposed to its usurpations — Reformers expelled from Eng- land — The doctrines of Huss and of VVicklifle derived from the Wal- denses — Retrospective notice of tho Aibigenses and the Paulicians — The Vaudois protected by the dukes of Savoy — Contest of the emperor Frederick II. with the popes — His cruel edicts against heretics — Per- secution of the Waldenses — Conversion of a Jacobin monk — The Beg- hards — Derivation of their title (note) — Colony of Waldenses removed to Calabria — The fraternity of the poor — Turlupins — Increase of the Waldenses. From page 246 to 259. CONTENTS. XV. CHAPTERXI. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Wars between France and England — The English finally dispos- sessed of their provinces in France — Civil war in England — The Ger- man empire — The Golden Bull — Rule of succession to the throne — The electoral college — Its proceedings in reference to the contest be- tween Lewis of Bavaria and the popes — Diet of Frankfort — Law res- pecting the election and coronation of a successor to the imperial throne — Switzerland — Description of the Country — The Cantons — Struggle for their Independence — Religion of the several Cantons — The Netherlands — Historical sketch — Capture of Constantinople — The American continent discovered — Moveable types invented — Con- sequences of the downfall of the Greek empire — Brethren and clerks of the common life — Revival of Literature — Universities founded — The Romish church descending lower into vice and ignorance — Prog- ress of religious reformation opposed by the poliiical and ecclesiastical authorities — State of religion in the Church — The great schism of the West — Two popes on the throne — Their mutual anathemas against each other — Three popes claim the chair of St. Peter — Council of Constance — Convened to reform the Church — Asserted its supremacy over the popes — Martin V. elevated to the papal throne — His right contested by Benedict XIII., — Controversy between Martin and the council — The wine withheld from the laity in the administration of the Lord's Supper — The decrees of the council respecting the keeping of faith with heretics — Failed in its object of reforming the morals of the clergy — Council at Basle — Controversy with Eugenius IV., — The members are excommunicated — The pope is formally deposed, and Amadseus, duke of Savoy, elevated to the pontificate — Council at Fer- rara and at Florence — Adjournment of the councils without any bene- ficial results — Influence of their proceedings on the Reformation — Triumph of the popes over the councils — Popes, &c., — Remarks on the apostolic succession — Visible declension of the papal power — Re- ligious factions distract the Church — Last eflort to unite the Greek and Latin churches. From page 259 to 278. CHAPTERXII. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Progress of the Reformation — The vices of the clergy, and the de- graded state of the Church, acknowledged by all classes of the peo- ple — Tolerant spirit of the counts of Savoy — Persecution of the Vau- dois — Martyrdom of John Huss — His safe-conduct — Upon what prin- ciples violated by the council of Constance — Popish doctrine of not keeping faith with heretics — The authorities which sustain that doc- trine — Exemplified in the proceedings of the council of Trent in the sixteenth century — Jerome of Prague martyred — Persecutions in Scot- land — Bohemia — Ancient history — Introduction of Christianity — The rites of the Greek church established — The doctrines of Waldo intro- duced — The spirit of the Bohemian reformers excited by the martyr- XVI. CONTENTS. dom of Huss — Popular commotions — Mount Tabor — Resistance against the government — John Ziska — Success of the Taborites — Compromise effected with the Calixtines by yielding to them the partaking of the sacrament in both kinds — War between the Taborites and the Calix- tines — Concluded by the death of Procopius — The Taborites overcome and dispersed — The Bohemian brethren assembled on the borders of Silesia and Moravia — Their Church organized — The United Breth- ren — Their religious doctrines and government — Persecuted by the papists — Summary notice of them to eighteenth century — The Vau- dois — Their cruel persecution by Innocent VIII., — His bull for their extermination — Sufferings of the Waldenses in Dauphine — Of the Vaudois in the valleys of Piedmont — Popish misrepresentations of their character to the court of Savoy — Persecutions in Scotland — Louis XII. inquired into the crimes alledged against the Waldenses in the southern province of France. From page 278 to 298. CHAPTER XIII. SUPPLEMENT. The Vaudois — Constituted, in part, the Church in the wilderness — The obscurity of their early history, from the seclusion ; the convul- sions in the Western States of Europe ; the poverty of learning in the Dark Ages — Their antiquity proved from their own testimony — Their character, from the Noble Lesson ; their Confession of Faith ; their early records ; the acknowledgment of their enemies — Manuscript chronicle in the Abbey of Corvey — Their Confession of Faith in the year 1120 — Another in the same century — Their government and or- dinances — Testimony of John Paul Perrin — Of ^neas Sylvius — Their Pastors — (Question as to lay-elders — Deacons — Their rite of Baptism — Ciuestion as to the Baptism of infants — Authorities referred to — The doctrines in their Confession of Faith compared with the pro- positions of Luther — The Vaudois of the twelfth century purer in the reform-tenets than Luther — Their supposed number in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and in the nineteenth — The multitudts des- troyed by persecution through successive ages. From page 298 to 309. Appendix. — From page 309 to 314. The Christian Era. — From page 314 to 319. A Chronological Table. — From page 319 to 339. PKIKOJSTOIT THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. CHAPTER I. The Church was the subject, in the divine counsels, of the everlasting covenant of Redemption. God said, in the language of the inspired Psalmist — "t have made a covenant with my cho- sen ; thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. I will make him my first born, higher than the kings of the earth. My covenant shall stand fast with liim." The apostle of the Gentiles, in his epistle to the Ephesians, extols the spiritual blessings of God in Christ bestowed upon believers, ac- cording as he had chosen them in him before the foundation of the world; and in the epistle to Timothy, he speaks of them as being saved, and called with a holy calling, not according to their works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given them in Christ Jesus before the world began. Upon this covenant of Redemption are founded all the merciful and providential dis- plays of God's love towards his people. According to it he be- stows his grace ; and from it sprang the gospel of peace. A seed which should prolong his days — or the General Assembly and church of the first-born — was promised to Christ by this covenant as the condition of his propitiatory sacrifice for sin, (Isaiah liii.) The existence of this invisible and catholic Church, and the salva- tion of all believers through the dispensations of grace, are equally embraced by it. The declaration of God, after the first transgression, that, " The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," was the first revelation to the inhabitants of this world, of the plan of redemp- tion. This was announced before the tenants of Paradise were expelled from the garden, and the flaming sword of the cherubim displayed for preserving the tree of life. When "men began to call upon the name of the Lord,"i ^ visi- ble church of Christ, or an Assembly of true Believers, was estab- lished on earth. This was in the life-time of the first progenitors of the human race. 'Genesis iv. 26. In tlie marginal reference — " To call themselves by tlie name of the Lord." 18 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, That acts of worship had been previously performecl, is express- ly stated in the case of Abel, who, by faith offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. This sacrifice was doubtless expiatory, as a means of propitiating the divine favor, and prefig- urative or typical of that great atoning sacrifice which woukl make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness. It was therefore, truly founded on the promise after the fall. " It was expressive of a sense of guilt, of the necessity of an atone- ment, of submission to this vicarious mode of expiation, and .of faith in the promised Mediator." Thus simultaneously with the sentence of condemnation for man's first act of disobedience, was the revelation of a provision for pardon and salvation, through the atoning sacrifice of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And it may be here remarked, that this principle of inter- cession between the supreme Being and the fallen race of man, has accordingly prevailed throughout all ages, and in all nations, how- ever degraded in heathenism and ignorance. Although the wickedness of man was great before the general destruction by the deluge, our confidence in the faithfulness of God assures us, tiiat he left not himself without a witness throughout this period of degeneracy and vice. There were doubtless at all times sincere worshippers who preserved true religion and piety in the world, and who are called in Scripture, "The sons of God." {Genesis vi. 2.) We are informed, that Enoch was translated, having this testimony that he pleased God, and, that Noah, a preacher of reighteousness, became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Such is the brief history of the visible Church of Christ before the flood. Noah, when he left the ark, built an altar, and offered burnt of- ferings of every clean beast and of every clean fowl; and God ac- cepted the sacrifice, established with him a covenant of mercy, and blessed him. From this remnant of the descendants of Adam was transmitted the knowledge of God, the traditionary history of the Antediluvians, and of the general destruction of the human race. To this point, as to a centre, may be traced back, the su- perstitious observances of nations dispersed over the remotest re- gions of the globe. Their several forms of worship derived from a pure original, became in the course of time, corrupted by an ad- mixture with rites and ceremonies found(;d upon the fears and ig- norance of those, who, unassisted by the light of divine revelation, had lost all knowledge of the r(;liginn j-)rescrv'cd under the Provi- dence of Cod, in the family of their common ancestor. Notwithstanding the general corruption which prevailed among mankind for many ages after the confusion of their language, and their dispersion from tlie plains of Shinar, there is no doubt, that the knowlf^dge of God was preserved; and that the fear of his just judgment restrained the wickedness of men. Pharaoh acknowl- THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 19 cdajed the visitation of God upon his family for the violence offered •to the person of Sarai. Abimelech, king of Gerar, of the Philis- tines, entreated God to vvithliokl his judgments against him and his people for a similar ofl'ense. Lot, whom the inspired writer calls just and righteous, was rescued from the calamity which befell the cities of the Plain. Abimelech, another of the knigs of a country devoted to destruction for the iniquities of its inhabitants, proposed to Isaac a covenant of peace, declaring that he saw certainly that the Lord was with him. Job — who dwelt in the Ausitis, on the confines of Idumea and Arabia, and was contemporary with Moses — and his friends who visited him in his afflictions, were evidently the true worshippers of God. Balaam, of the city of Pethor, on the Euphrates, called the Lord his God. He lived, A. M. 2530. Ancient history presents other instances, at subsequent periods, of a knowledge of the supreme Being retained in the midst of an almost universal prevalence of idolatrous worship. Through the posterity of Shem, from whom proceeded the Messiah, the purest system of worship w^as transmitted ; whilst the descendants of Ham, early lost all traces of the rites instituted for appeasing the anger of the Deity and securing his blessing. But God entered into a covenant relation with Abraham, by which his descendants became the depositaries of divine truth. His immediate ancestors had been idolaters, and were worshippers of the Teraphims, which are supposed to have been figures intend- ed for types or representations of the ark. These idols are still known among some of tlie eastern nations of Telefing, aiid arc su- perstitiously revered as possessing an occult power to avert evils both of a moral and physical nature. God declared, that in him all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Through him the promises announced in the garden of Eden were to be fulfilled. In his family was instituted the Church of Christ; and a visible church relationship was formally estab- lished betw'een them and its spiritual Head. The rile of circum- cision was ordained as a distinguishing mark or seal of initiation. " Two purposes were to be answered by this — the preservation of the true doctrine of salvation, which is the great and solemn duty of every branch of the Church of God — and, the manifestation of that truth to others." They were thus set apart as a peculiar peo- ple, intrusted with the preservation and propagation of the divine oracles. About 500 years after the call of Abraliam, the covenant was renewed at Sinai with his descendants, and the law promulgated. " The great moral code, which is binding on all mankind, at all times, and under all circumstances, and the specific enacttnents which are only so many expressions of that love to God and man, which is essential to the well-being of creation, was laid as the ba- sis of this constitution, and on this account it is frequently called 20 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. the Law. Regular forms of divine worship were appointed. A regular priesthood was separated for its performance. These all had a prospective or prefigurative reference to a future and supe- rior dispensation ; or the second and new covenant, which was in- stituted by the Lord Jesus Christ." The former is therefore, known as the covenant of works, and the latter as the covenant of grace. The former was a republication of the covenant made with Adam before the fall, which was violated by his disobedience. The latter was the consummation of the great covenant of Re- demption, sealed and forever perfected by that sacrifice on the cross, of which the burnt offerings and sacrifices which preceded it, were but the types and shadows. The Israelites in the wilder- ness are said to have drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ. (1 Cor. x. 4.) Under the former, the Church is spoken of by inspired writers, as Mount Zion. Hence the Psalmist rapturously declares it to be, " The joy of the whole earth" — and Isaiah prophetically announces, that " The Redeemer shall come to Zion." As the period of the nativity of Jesus Christ approached, a most remarkable coincidence of events, under the guidance of divine Providence, prepared the world for his advent. That all nations expected at the time the appearance of some extraordinary per- sonage, is a fact known to those conversant with the historical records of that period. Such an impression among the heathens who had not been in frequent intercourse with the Jewish people, and therefore unacquainted with their sacred writings, must have been derived from traditions of the remotest antiquity founded upon the promises to the fathers. Through this channel only, could a knowledge of the mysterious dispensations of God in the provis- ions of grace and salvation have been obtained. The Patriarchs, with t!ie eye of faith, had looked forward through the long vista of time to the consummation of these cheering promises. The pro- phets of Israel had foretold the future glory of the church, when the Gentiles should come to its light, and kings to the brightness of its rising. Balaam, a diviner of Mesopotamia, 1450 years before the event, had prophesied, that, " There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel ;" and immediately after the nativity, wise men from the distant East went to Jerusalem, with treasures of gold, and frankincense and myrrh, inquiring, " Where is He that is born king of the Jews, for we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship Him." About three hundred years before the birth of Christ, the con- quests of Alexander the Great, had disseminated a knowledge of the Greek language among the nations who were subdued by the power of his arms. Through this channel, Grecian literature was diffused over a large portion of the East. The Hebrew language THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. n was not then spoken in its original purity by the Jewish people. The Macedonic — Alexandrine dialect was the vernacular of the colonies planted in Alexandria and the neighboring- provinces by Alexander. The translation of the sacred writings into this tongue,^ by Jewish interpreters, for their public worship in the synagogues, communicated a knowledge of the Scriptures to the surrounding nations, and prepared them for the reception of the gospel, and facilitated the propagation of the christian doctrines throughout the East. In the West, the wonderful Providence of God in providing for the extension of the Church of Christ, was equally displayed in the progress of events. The Roman Republic was advancing on- ward in its career of universal dominion, and the epoch was ap- proaching, w^hen the splendor of its conquests would be surpassed^ only by Its achievements in the arts and the peaceful triumphs of refinement and literature. The Augustan age arrived — and the his- torian recorded the greatness and grandeur of the empire, whilst the poet immortalized its munificence and its generous patronage of the Muses. At the close of the 40th century Rome had become the mistress of the world. Its distant provinces were reduced to subjection ; peace was established throughout its widely extended domain, and the Temple of Janus closed. The calmness and seren- ity of the dawn seemed about to usher in a new day of life, giving light and elfulgence, such as had never before beamed upon a dark- ened and benighted world. The Poet of Mantua, in strains glow- ing with the fervor of inspiration, announced the arrival of the last age, piedicted by the Cumaan Sibyl, — the beginning of the great series of revolving years. " Now a new progeny from high hea- ven descends. By whom first the iron Age shall cease, and the Golden Age over all the world arise. This glory of our age shall make his entrance ; and the great months begin to roll. He shall partake of the life of gods; and rule the peaceful world with his Father's virtues. The Destinies, harmonious in the established or- der of the Fates, sang to their spindles — ' Ye so happy ages, run, haste forward to the birth.' Bright offspring of the gods, illustri- ous progeny of Jove, set forward on ihy way to signal honors. The time is now at hand !" The Jewish nation had been reduced to the condition of a Ro- man province; and by their own computations, founded on their sacred records, an opinion generally prevailed that at that time there would appear a prince and savior who would not only restore the ancient government in Judea, but that he would obtain the em- pire of the world. This expectation excited them to a rebellion against the Roman authority, and precipitated their destruction. False prophets arose in succession who persuaded the people that ' The Septuagrint ; the supposed work of seventy-two interpreters in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. 22 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. the period of their national greatness had arrived ; and this delu- sion prevailed, until the city of Jerusalem and the Temple itself, were laid in ruins by the Roman army. Tacitus, who witnessed the calamities which befell the Jews, from their obstinate resistance of the besieging forces under Titus, and the cruelties which they mutually inflicted upon themselves, records the general persuasion, drawn from the ancient writings of the priests, " That some who should come out of Judea would ob- tain the empire of the world." Suetonius, who flourished in the beginning of the second century, states that, " For a long time a constant persuasion had prevailed all over the East, (Oriente toto const; lis opinio,) some who should come out of Judea would ob- tain universal dominion ; as recorded in the Books of the Fates." The same writer refers to another ancient prediction — if the unin- spired effusions of an excited fancy can be received as such — pre- vious to the advent of the Messiah, " That nature was about to bring forth a son who would be king of the Romans." " Here nature itself," remarks the learned Prideaux, "that is, the God of nature, is made the immediate cause of the birth ; and he. must be more than an ordinary person who was to be produced by so ex- traordinary a generation." It was in expectation of a forth-coming Redeemer, that Simeon, in faith, waited for the consolation of Israel. When he received the child, Jesus, in his arms, he exclaimed, " Lord, let now thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people : a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." It was under the expectation that Jesus, when he rode into Jerusalem, would proclaim himself the Deliverer and King of the Jewish na- tion, that multitudes spread their garments in the way, others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way, and those who went before and followed cried, " Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the highest!" The woman of Samaria expressed the strength of her belief in the advent of the Messiah, and in the di- vinity of his person, by declaring, that when he came, he would tell them all things. Andrew communicated to Peter the intelli- gence, that he had found the Messias ; which is, being interpreted, the Christ. After the crucifixion, some of the disciples declared that they had cherished the hope — " It had been he, Avho should have redeemed Israel." With these concurring circumstances, the rejection of Christ by the Jewish nation is a standing monument of the first judgment of God in giving them over to blindness of mind and obduracy of heart. For two thousand years they had been depositaries of tiie sacred oracles of truth ; they had been made a peculiar people ; THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 23 distinguished from all oilier nations as the marked objects of God's especial fav^or and directing providence. Josephus admits that the prophecies of a coming Messiah were recorded in the holy books of the inspired writers, but the event not having corresponded with his own interpretation, he pronounces those prophecies dark and ambiguous oracles ; and with a singular inconsistency, having conceded that the predictions point " to one of his own nation," concludes by alhrming, that, " In truih Vespa- sian's empire was designed ; for lie was created emperor of Rome in Judea." Thus did he substitute a Roman of mean birth, an idolater, and an enemy of the Jewish people, for Him wlio was emphatically predicted of, as a descendant of the royal family or house of David ; who would restore the worship of the true God, and be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of the people of Israel. The fullness of time having arrived, when the promises of God, tliat he would make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, were to be fully accomplished, when the pro- phecies of a coming Messiah, who would assume our nature, and appear in the likeness of sinful flesh, must all be literally and cir- cumstantially fulfilled ; when Jesus Christ should present himself as the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance — an angel, commissioned from the thione of heaven, announced to shepherds near the town of Bethlehem in Judea, the good tidings of great joy — that in the city of David there was that day born, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. This annunciation was immediately confirmed by a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the high- est and on earth peace, good will toward men. The Evangelists have related but few circumstances of the early life of our Savior; and it would be at least an unprofitable labor to search the writings of uninspired authors who have presumed to inscribe their own vague conjectures on the subject, oi to transmit the doubtful and often superstitious traditions they have received from others. In the 13th year of his age, he appeared in the Temple, and disputed with the Jewish doctors — propounding and answering questions — and all who heard him were astonished at his under- standing. What were the subjects of discussion has not been re- vealed to us, and we are permitlcd to conjecture from his own de- claration, tiiat he then advanced those divine doctrines, which he afterward enforced by his wisdom and the miraculous exhibitions of his power. But in this event, which seems to have been incident- ally alluded to by the inspired writer, we have the fulfilment of a prophecy made 1700 years before its accomplishment. It was S4 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, predicted by the Patriarch Jacob, that, " The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be ;" or, as it is rendered in the Septuagint version, " Until the coming of him to whom it is reserved." About this time, Archeiaus, (son of Herod the Great,) the king of Judea, was banished by Augus- tus Caesar to Vienne in Gaul, and Judea became a part of the province of Syria. The prophet had also said, " The desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory." " The glory of this latter house (the second temple) shall be greater than of the former," (Haggai.) " He, in whom ' all the nations of the earth were to be blessed,' and of whose coming a general expecta- tion would prevail ; He would come, and his presence, who is ' the glory of the Lord' and the true temple, ' in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily,' would fill that house with glory, and render it far more glorious than the Shecinah (or visible glory,) rendered Solomon's temple.'" In the 26th year of our Christian era, the ministry of John the Baptist commenced. This, says the Evangelist, was the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, (JV/ar/c,) and our Savior afterwards declared, that, " The law and the prophets were until John ; since that time the Kingdom of God is preached." It was then that the sixty-nine weeks mentioned in the prophecy of Daniel expired — " Know therefore, and understand, that, from the going forth of the commandment to restore, and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks," or sixty-nine weeks. The commandment to re- store, and to build Jerusalem, was given by Artaxerxes Longima- nus, king of Persia, in the seventh year of his reign. It was di- rected to Ezra, w^ho by this commission was empowered to return to Jerusalem, and to restore the Church and state of the Jews.- John, at the expiration of about three years and a half from the commencement of his ministry, was imprisoned and beheaded ; and then came Jesus into Galilee preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God. This is the Kingdom which Daniel had foretold, the God of heaven would set up, which shall never be destroyed. — That Dominion and Glory and Kingdom, to be given to One like the son of man ; that all people, nations and languages should serve him. This was (he stone cut out of the mountain without iiands, which smote the image, and became itself a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This was the Church of Christ, against which the gates of hell would never prevail. Jesus Christ, having laid the foundation of his church by preach- ing and by miracles, selected twelve of his disciples, whom he ' Scott's Comiiientaries. *Prideaux'8 Connection. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 20 called Apostles. These he sent out to preach the Gospel ; giving them power and authority over devils, and to heal diseases, that the authenticity of their mission might be recognized and acknow- ledged by all men. The hopes and the enmity of the Jews were alternately excited; as they flattered themselves that he had come to restore again the kingdom of Israel, or Avere ofl'ended by his condemnation of their hypocrisy and unbelief, and the purity of his doctrines. His most inveterate enemies were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The origin of these sects may be referred to a period immedi- ately succeeding the Babylonish captivity. Two parties arose, differing in their construction of the moral law. One of them in- sisted upon a strict observance of the precepts of the written word alone, and that by this obedience they fulfilled all righteousness. — These were afterwards known as Sadducees. The other, to this written code, added the tradition of the Elders, and superadded many rigorous observances, which they distinguished as woiks of merit, and by which they believed they secured to themselves, the praise of men, and the favor of God. These works of superero- gation, procured for them a fund of merit, which imparted a supe- rior excellence unattainable by an obedience of the written law only, and elevated them above all others. These were the doc- trines at a later period of the sect of the Pharisees. At the time of our Savior's appearance on earth, the Sadducees maintained that there was no resurrection of the dead. They de- nied all spiritual existences, except God: and consequently did not believe in future rewards and punishments. They acknowledged the authority of the Pentateuch only. They extended the doctrine of free-agency to the exclusion of the Deity from any control over the thoughts and actions of men. The Pharisees believed in the existence of the soul, and in the resurrection. Josephus has charged them with maintaining the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, or the transmigration of the soul from one body, after death, into another. It has been questioned however, with good reason, whether, as a sect, they were the dis- ciples of the Pythagorean school of Philosophy. Nothing is al- leged against them on this ground in the Scripture of the New Tes- tament, notwithstanding the unsparing denunciations against them by our Savior. In the Acts of the Apostles it is said, "The Sad- ducees say there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both." The question proposed by the disciples to Christ, " Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind .'"' must have been founded, either upon a belief in this doctrine of transmi- gration, or, on the opinion of a ])re-existing state of the soul, of which there is no consciousness after its reunion with the body ; and of its accountability in this mysterious and incomprehensible state 26 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. of pre-existence, by which it, is amenable when united with the body, and hence, the infliction of sorrows and pains, render the dispensations of Providence, on those who are yet incapable from immaturity of age of committing sin. Upon this principle some of the ancient philosophers have accounted for the unequal distribu- tion of blessings in this life. It was believed by some of the Jews, that Christ was John the Baptist ; by others, Elias, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Her- od, himself, appears to have been perplexed on the subject. The doctrine of the resurrection was an article of faith among the Jews, from the remotest period in their history. It was, no doubt, a revealed truth. Job expressly declares it. In the Book of Psalms, in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and in the Maccabees, it is plainly taught. It was, no doubt, a fundamental doctrine of faith from Abraham to Christ, with the exception of the small sect of the Sadducees, When Christ assured Martha that Lazarus would rise again, she replied, " I know that he shall rise again in the resur- rection at the last day," which implied a belief in the resurrection of the body as well as the soul, and of which, from the simplicity and readiness of her answer, she seemed to have entertained no doubt. Job declares his confidence, that, although worms shall destroy his body, in his flesh he would see God. EzekiePs vision of the bones restored to life, with flesh and skin, by the breath of the spirit, was but a figurative annunciation of a general resurrec- tion. The Athenians, however, with all their refined theories and metaphysical reasoning, were unable to comprehend the doctrine when Paul boldly preached it on Mars' Hill, " for some of them mocked, and others said, we will hear thee again of this matter." The Pharisees believed, that, fastings, almsgiving, ablutions, confessions, and mortifications of the flesh, sufficiently atoned for sin. They received the traditions of the Elders as of equal au- thority with the written law. In all these, with their idea of mer- itorious works of supererogation, and the concealment of the most abominable vices under the cloak of extraordinary sanctity, they prefigured, with most remarkable exactness and truth, the Popish clergy of more modern date. The Scribes mentioned in Scripture, were not a distinct sect. — The title was generally applied to those engaged in literary pur- suits. They were also called doctors of the law, and were, for the most part, Pharisees in doctrines ; and therefore, the denuncia- tions of the Savior were directed to them as equally under the same sentence of condemnation. Scribe and lawyer were used as convertible terras. The flerodians were of recent origin in our Savior's time. They differed from the Pharisees in their willingness to submit to the Roman government. They combined, however, when they de- signed to entrap Christ by the question, whether it was lawful to THE CHURCH OP CHRIST. 27 pay tribute to Caesar, or not? A direct reply, either in the affirm- ative or negative, would have given to one of the parties a ground of accusation against him. This sect maintained, that, idolatrous practices in religion were excusable with those coerced by superior authority. Herod, who was its founder, acted according to this principle from political motives. He was all things to all men, that he might deceive all. Their whole system was one of du- plicity and cunning; Jesuitical in its conception, and papal in its practice. It was probably against this prominent characteristic of the Herodians that the disciples were warned, when Christ told them to beware of the leaven of Herod. They were, by way of reproach, called half-Jews, professing the Jewish religion, but con- forming, when policy justified their apostacy, with the idolatrous worship of the heathens. In the narrations of the same occur- rence, Matthew mentions the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the Sadducees ; hut Mark, the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. From which we must infer, that the doctrines of the Sadducees and of the Herodians, were either the same, or equally offensive to Christ. Notwithstanding the lessons of humility and of self-denial which the Savior frequently impressed upon his apostles and which were exemplified in his own person throughout his ministry ; a spirit of ambition, and an aspiring after supremacy in rank, excited expect- ations and hopes which they could neither suppress nor conceal from his observation. They reasoned among themselves who should be greatest in his kingdom ; and James and John petitioned that they might be exalted to seats on his right hand and on his lefl. — His reply was, " Whosoever of you will be the chiefest {protoSy first) shall be servant {doulos^ slave) of all." This controversy was renewed at the last Passover, after the administration of the sacra- ment, and when his ministry on earth was closed. Assuredly, at such a time and on that solemn occasion, when he knew that his hour was come, and that he would soon be delivered up to be cru- cified, he would not have omitted, had he designed it, to confer on Peter, that supreme apostolic authority which has been claimed for him by those who have assumed to be his successors in office. "But he said unto thern. He that is greatest among you let him be as the younger ; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve." But what should have humbled the aspirations of Peter, had he cher- ished a belief of any superior excellence in himself, had he ad- vanced any pretensions to a claim of infallibility, and what must have weakened the confidence of the other apostles, had they been disposed to acknowledge in him a priority of rank — Christ imme- diately warns him of the temptation which awaited him, and to make his mortification the greater, tells him, that, in tlie hour of trial he would deny him as his Lord and Master. Why was Peter thus selected and exposed to a temptation which Christ foresaw 28 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. would overcome him, and overwhelm him with confusion and shame? It was to Peter that on a previous occasion he addressed this severe rebuke, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." It was Peter, whom, at another time, he charged with doubting, and with having little faith. Peter thrice denied him at the judgment seat of Pilate, saying, " I know not the man ;" and confirmed his denial by oaths and curses. But we have not the shadow of evidence in the Scriptures, of any peculiar powers having been conceded to Peter by the apos- tles ; jior does it any where appear that he assumed to himself the exercise of prerogatives appertaining to the apostolic office, not common to them all. In his Epistle, he styles himself a fellow Presbyter^^ and forbids those who had the oversight of the churches to lord it over God's heritage. Although ardent in his tempera- ment, and hasty in his resolves, which were the characteristics of the Galileans, he was patient under rebuke, and prompt to apolo- gize whenever his warmth of feeling may have led him into indis- cretions. He was an humble and sincere follower of Christ, and a fearless and zealous preacher of the Gospel. His labors and perils in the propagation of the truth, were not surpassed by those of any other of the apostles. When Jesus had removed from their minds whatever ideas they may have entertained of a distinction of rank among themselves, or of a right of pre-eminence in one above another, he addressed them all in the following words: " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." After his resurrection he appeared among his disciples, and breathing on them, said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; om a tribe of which nothing was said con- cerning a priesthood, and thereby indicated a perpetual abrogation of a succession. He alone makes intercession for sinners. As un- der the old dispensation tiien, reconciliation for sin was obtained through the officiating priest, or minister of the sanctuary, and by the sacrifices which were presented by him at the altar, atonement was made for transgressions of the law; so under a new and better covenant, we have through Christ, or his body, the Church, access by one spirit unto the Father. Of this body, all spiritual believ- ers are members ; and they are members one of another. The character of a priest, or minister, tlirough whom only a communication is opened between God and the transgressor, can- not be recognized in the Church of Christ. No human mediation enters into this simple and glorious scheme of salvation; and the assumption of such an olfice is not only a perversion of the Spirit of the Gospel; but is nothing less than an attempt to usurp the throne of the Almighty. The apostles, themselves, never pretend- ed to have attained to a nearer ap[)roach to God than other men, except by faith and evangelical obedience; for, says Paul, "The righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ, is unto all and upon 72 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [2d centurj. all them that believe; for there is no difference. For 'all have sinned." Believers are called, " a spiritual house," "a holy priest- hood," to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ, and no longer through the mediation of a priest. Such is the Scriptural plan of obtaining acceptance with God, divested of all the pompous ceremonies, and nou' unmeaning rites of the Temple worship. "Believe, and be baptized, and you shall be saved," is the plain, comprehensive, and intelligible language of Scripture. Hence it was, that the apostles, who were the ambas- sadors of Christ, in his stead, bese(?ching sinners to be reconciled to God, adopted the most simple forms of government and wor- ship, in building up the churches of Christ. There were no tab- ernacles, with the golden candlestick, the table, the shew-bread, and the golden censer; no altar for sacrifices; no high-priest to officiate in the sanctuary ; no other ceremonies in the consecration to sacred orders, than the simple imposition of the hands by co- ordinate ministers, (or by the presbytery •,y no sacrifices prescrib- ed; no succession to the priestly-office declared; no holy garments for glory and for beauty ; of gold, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen ; no ephod ; broidered robes ; nor mitre, with its holy crown of pure gold, inscribed with " Holiness to the Lord;" no sacerdo- tal dignities, nor pontifical prerogatives. These were the "beg- garly elements" under the covenant of works; but we are now un- der a covenant of grace. Tlic introduction of the system of the Jewish priesthood, and engrafting it upon the Christian Church, corrupted the purity of worship; and was the foundation of the unscriptural doctrine of justification by works, which eventually obliterated all traces of vi- tal religion. It was the restoration of tlie terms of acceptance with God, which had been declai'ed by his word, inefficacious to salvation; as by the deeds of the law shall no one be justified. — This ^vas the natural tendency, of establishing tlie forms of the Temple worship, instituting its orders of priesthood, and requiring an observance of the rites and ceremonies used in its public ser- vices. Altars were erected in the churches, in imitation of those employed in the service of the Jewish Temple; the sacrifice of the mass followed, which has been declared to be "a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice offered unto God, for the quick and the dead;" tithes and first-fruits were the natural accompaniments of this innovation ; the use of incense was introduced ; the officiating priests, who were so called after the offices of the Temple, imita- ted that Jewish order in their costly and gorgeous vestments, and the sacerdotal ornament of the mitre, in time, became one of the insignia of official dignify; at a later period, appeared the triple crown, the tiara of the Jewish high-priest, encircling the brows of him who has risen above all otlier dignitaries in the Church of ' 1 Timothy, chap. iv. 14.. 2d century.] the church of christ. 73 Christ, who, " as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing him- self that he is God." The Pi)arisaical doctrine of the merits of works of righteous- ness superseded the scriptural doctrine of justification hy faith ; and insinuated itself into the Church, with that train of evils which followed ihe introduction of the Jewish system of w"orship under the abrogated dispensation of the law. Hence, immediately after, arose a sect of religious, but superstitious devotees ; who, distin- guished as Jlscetics^ claimed the merit of extraordinary sanctity, by the austerity of their habits, and the mortification of every sensual feeling. With their works of perfect obedience and of superero- gation, they mingled the sublimated notions of Platonism ; and whilst they thus humbled the pride and lusts of the flesh, by an ex- treme abstinence, they endeavored to elevate the soul, by abstract- ed contemplations of the divine essence, of the excellencies and perfections of the Supreme Being. Deriving their tenets from two corrupt sources, the hypocritical Pharisees, and the Pagan philoso- phers, they adopted a maxim which became an article of faith in the Church; that "it is not only lawful, hut praiseworthy, to de- ceive, and even to use the expedient of a lie, in order to advance the cause of truth and piety." ^ Thus were the fatal consequences of a departure from the orig- inal simplicity in the forms of government and worship, of the Christian Church, developed at an early period. But the evils multiplied and enlarged. The progress in the career of vice, was uninterrupted, with the exception of a few inetfectual efforts to stem the torrent of corruption; and the usurpations of the hier- archy, commenced in this century, continually advanced, until an absolute despotism was established. Rome, the scat of the politi- cal empire, was an early aspirant to the sovereignty in the spiritual kingdom. Towards the close of this century, arose the controversy on the time of celebrating the Paschal Feast, between the Asiatic and Western churches. Each provincial diocese exercised the right of determining for itself; but imperial Rome, from whose Capitol were promulgated the laws which governed the fairest portions of the known world, asserted an equal supremacy over the ecclesiasti- cal provinces within the empire. Victor, who then occupied the espiscopal chair, issued his mandate to the bishops of the East, to conform with the West in their observance of Easter. To this imperious order the Asiatics responded in the language of con- tempt; and with a becoming spirit of independence, jjeicmptorily refused a compliance, and expressed their determination not to do- part from Ihe custom of th.eir ancestors, in the time of celel)rating this religious festival. Victor pronounced their excommunication from a fellowship with the other churches of Christendom. But 'Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, 2d century. 74 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, [3d cetitury. his tliuiidcrs were regarded, neither by the Asiatic nor the Western churches ; and the presumption of Victor was humbled by a gen- eral disapproval of his violent and insulting measure. The con- troversy here ceased, and each party retained their own customs until the fourth century ; when, in 325, the council of Nice estab- lished an uniform time of celebrating that feast in all the churches. In this century the sacrament of the Lord's supper, was admin- istered to all communicants alike; and if any were absent from sickness, portions of the consecrated bread and wine were sent to them. It was believed to be essential to salvation ; and therefore was administered to infants, immediately after their baptism. This opinion was entertained, for many centuries, by some of the most distinguished fathers of the Church; by Augustine, Pope Innocent I., Cy|)rian, and Maldonate who also affirms, tliat " it was the opin- ion of the first six centuries."^ In this, and the following century, the corrupt influences of the •oriental philosophy, inflicted a serious evil upon the Church, by the perversion of its doctrines. A closer alliance was formed be- tween them by the popularity of a new sect which arose and as- sumed the name oi^ Platonics. Their system was formed by blend- ing togetiicr, the opinions and principles of other sects, which they attempted to harmonize under one head; and they were thence called Eclectics. Origen adopted the tenets of this sect; and from this source, " The doctors," says Mosheim, " began to introduce their subtle and obscure erudition into the religion of Jesus." From tliese arose tlie mystics, and the societies of monks ; and hence, undoubtedly, originated many foolish ceremonies in the Church, which are still religiously observed. Among these may be men- tioned, the custom of praying towards the East , which originated with the Magi, and was from them introduced into the Christian worship; as were, in the following ages, many other rites practiced by those pagan idolaters. It is evident that the Church, from the period of a change in its government, rapidly apostatized from the ancient faith, and at every step descended still lower into the abyss of heathenism and superstition. At the close of this century flour- ished Irenaius and Tertullian.- The general outlines of the government of the Church, as estab- lished in the preceding century, were not sensibly changed in this, the third century; except perhaps in this respect, that the pre-emi- nence was universally conceded to the bishoj)s of Rome, of Antioch, and of Alexandria, as the heads of what were called Apostolic Churches. In the exercise of any peculiar prerogatives, however, their powers were not only questioned, but in many instances, were absolutely denied. In the controversy, which arose on the ques- 'Daillc, on tlie right use of the Fathers. ' " J^ulla Ecclcda sine Episcopo, has been a fact as well as a maxim since the time of TertulHan aiid lrcna:us." Gibbon, c!iap. .\v. Sd century.] the church of christ. 75 tion of baptizing heretics, Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, disre- garded the menacing language of Stephen, the bishop of Rome; who insisted upon an admission into the Church, of all recanting heretics, without a second administration of that ordinance. The Eastern churches, including those in Africa, received them as cate- chumens, who were not entitled to full membership before a bap- tism, on their new profession of faith. This pre-eminence, there- fore, was more of distinction than of prerogatives. From this dis- tinction, certain privileges were claimed, and even acquiesced in, but they were uncertain and undefined ; and hence, arose frequent an- gry contioversies, in which the ])arties acknowledging no common tribunal of adjudication, maintained with obstinacy, their respective opinions. The peace of the Church, was, throughout this century, disturbed by the conflicting claims of these aspiring prelates; not only by their frequent, but unsuccessful attempts to extend their provincial jurisdictions; but, by the restrictions which they suc- cessively drew around the inferior orders of the clergy within their respective dioceses, and by their continued encroachments on the privileges of the laity. Each bishop became an absolute sovereign within his province; and in the populous and opulent cities, a style of extravagance, and habits of luxury and indolence, were introduced. " A throne," says Mosheim, " surrounded with ministers, exalted above his equals, the servant of the meek and humble Jesus ; and sumptuous gar- ments dazzled the eyes and the minds of the multitude into an ig- norant veneration for their arrogated authority." The example of their spiritual lords, seduced the clergy to imitate their splendor and their princely exhibitions of wealth, as well as their follies and their vices. Each order became contaminated ; and all traces of religion were vanishing from the Church, from the general neglect of the sacred duties of the clerical office. To supj)ly the vacan- cies in the functions of the several orders, inferior grades of offi- ces were established, and upon these devolved the duties in the administration of the ordinances, and in the preaching of the word. In this century were introduced into the Church, readers, sub-dea- cons, acolythi, exorcists, &c. &c., whose services were required to relieve their indolent superiors. The clergy were not forbidden to marry; but, a character of peculiar sanctity was attached to those, who refrained from wed- lock, and publicly abjured the nuptial state. To exhibit in a more exemplary manner the virtue of their self-denial, and their com- plete triumph over the temptations of sensual indulgences, they lived on terms of the most intimate association with those women who had made solemn vows of perpetual chastity,^ professing to maintain such delicate intercourse in perfect purity and innocence. 'These holy conciil)ines were cnlled by the Greeks, Suncisaktoi ; and by tlie Lat- ins, Mxdieres subintroductcc.''^ Their true characters were scarcely equivocal. 76 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [3d century. Such was the lamentable condition of the Church, within a cen- tury from the institution of diocesan episcopacy. This degeneracy sprung up and flourished amidst the severest persecutions, by the Roman emperors, and presents a moral phenomenon in the history of man. Within that period successive bishops of Rome were martyred. The character of the Christians, as a sect, was calum- niated by men of influence in the state, and by the distinguished writers of the age. Rome was still pagan ; and the secular arm was wielded against those who professed the Cliristian faith. They were not permitted to erect sanctuaries of public worship-, but assembled in private houses, and frequently in secret, around the tombs of their martyrs. Under all these severe restrictions, such was the inevitable tendency of the form of ecclesiastical govern- ment to despotism and to moral corruption, that the controlling power of the empire was unable to check the abuses which sprung up under it. The Church was destitute of a physical force to oom.mand obedience to its mandates ; but it exerted, notwithstand- ing, a moral energy over the minds of the people which continual- ly extended the sphere of its authority. The splendor and the corruption which circled around the episcopal throne, gave to it a factitious charm wliich fascinated the vulgar and the superstitious, Victor, who thundered his anathemas against the ecclesiastical provinces of all Asia, was soon after made sensible of his imbecil- ity, by an edict from Severus, for his martyrdom^ Irenseus, who replied to Victor in a synodical epistle, in the name of the Gallic churches, shared the fate of his adversary. Stephen, who issued a sentence of excommunication against the bishop of Carthage, and the Asiatic and African churches, in a tone of imperial authority, was beheaded by an order from the emperor, Valerian. Such was the weakness, and the spiritual pride of those aspiring prelates. — • Cyprian, although of a meek and amiable temper, and who, to the haughty language of Ste[)hen, replied in a spirit of Christian hu- mility, was, like that insolent and overbearing bishop, a helpless victim in the hands of the executioner. ^The erection of buildings for public worship, opened a new field for the multiplication of rites and ceremonies, and stimulated the clergy to an increased display of magnificence and grandeur in the forms of religious service. The ignorant populace are eas- 'In the reign of Alexander, Uio first Christian churches were supposed to have been crcfted hotwocn the years 222 and 235. In Rome they were called RasiliciB, from their resemblance to buildings of that name, devoted to meetings of the senate and to judicial purposes. Constantinc, in the following century, i)resented to the Christians, his palace on the Cajlian Hill, and on tliis site was erected a Ihiailica. — They arc termed Kuritilca in Greek. The term Kcclcfihi refers more particularly to the Assemi)ly, or Body of Christians, and to the Church in its spiritual character. Next to the Hasilica, built in the reign of Constantino, was the Church of St. Peter, in tiie earne reign, on the V^atican hill, A. D. 324. About twelve centuries after, it was ta- ken down by Pope .Julius II., and the present Church of St. Peter, erected, and fin- ished in the pontificate of Leo X. 3d century.] the church of christ. 77 ily captivated by splendid exhibitions ; and when connected with the rites of divine worship, their imaginations very readily attach to them superstitious reverence and awe. This natural attachment of the vulgar, to an ostentatious splendor in the external forms in religion, has been very successfully directed, by the ])a[jal hier- archy, in its advancement to power ; and in the age of ignorance and supej'stition of which we write, this moral inlluence must iiave operated with extiaordniary cflicacy. It is, moreover, to be recol- lected, that the Church of Christ may be said to have been at this time in the midst of a pagan population ; the admiring spectators of these religious rites, were therefore, heathen idolaters. A great- er part of the forms introduced in this and the succeeding age, was adapted to harmonize with their polytheistic jM'ejudices. — " There is no doubt that Christians, for this reason, wejc allowed to dance, sport, and feast at the tombs of the martyrs, upon their respective festivals, and to do every thing which the pagans were accustomed to do in their temples, during the feasts celebrated in honor of their gods." The bread and wine were both administered in the Lord's Sup- per, to all communicants alike. They were even permitted to car- ry away the consecrated elements, at the conclusion of the cere- mony ; which they nfight partake of in private.' And in connec-. lion, it might be here remarked, that the denial of the wine to the laity, was not introduced into the Church until tlie iifteenth cen- tury, when it was made a rule by the council of Constance, A. D. 1415. Of this there is undoubted evidence throughout the succes- sive centuries which intervened. In the middle of the fifth cen- tury, Leo the Great distinguished the jMcmichees^ from those who were received as the orthodox members of the Church, by the former refusing to partake of the wine; and warns the Church against them. Gelasius, at the close of the same century, decreed, " That, as there were some, from a superstitious conceit, who would not partake of the consecrated blood, they should be pro- hibited from any participation in the sacrament" — " for as much as, there cannot, without great saci'ilege, be any division made in one and tlie same mystery." It was the doctrine of the Church, " that baptism procured for the newly initiated the remission of sins;" and Cyprian, in confirm- ation of this, expressly says, " It is manifest where, and by whom the remission of sins, which is conferred in baptism is administered. They who are presented to the rulers of the Chuich, obtain by our prayers and imposition of hands the Holy Ghost." Before the ad- ministration of that ordinance, the catechumen was released from the bondage of Satan, by certain formulas of words and ceremonies of an exorcist. Honey and milk were put into his mouth ; and he was anointed both before and after that holy rite. 'Daille, on the Feathers. 78 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [3d ccnlury. Altars were erected in tlie churches and wax (apcrs introduced. This was probably taken from the custom of ttie irla2;ian worship- pers who used fires as emblems of the sun, which they adored as the symbol or representation of the angel of light. It will be ob- served, in the progress of the Church through all its stages of cor- ruption, tliat its religious rites and ceremonies were faithful imita- tions of the pagan mysteries. From the period of the introduction of diocesan episcopacy with its concomitant abuses and usurpations, may be projjerly dated the origin of popery. In each century, as we proceed in its histoiy, we shall perceive its continued growth and increase of power, until it acquired a perfect maturity and strength, and reduced to subjection the most powerful kingdoms of the earth. The doctrine of a necessary purification of the soul after death, before it was in a proper state for the enjoyment of celestial hap- piness, was introduced in this century by Manes, a Persian philoso- pher, who embraced the Christian faith. This was the foundation of that wild fiction, picrgatory ; which a few ages after was matured into a system, and now constitutes an important part of that great machinery by which the papal hierarchy controls the superstitious fears of its votaries. The ideas of Plato, on the future state of existence of those who, by reason of their vices, are not prepared to enter into the immedi- ate enjoyment of happiness after death, formed the basis of the Manichsean system of purgation. Manes maintained, that " The total purification of souls cannot be accomplished during this mor- tal life. Hence the souls of men, after death, must pass through two states more of probation and trial, by water and /re, before they can ascend to the region of light." Through this process must those souls ])ass, who have been true believers, and have combated against temptations, &c. But those souls, who have in this life neglected the salutary work of their purification, are excluded from these regions of expurgation. In this system, of which I have drawn but a simple outline, we discover the distinction between the diffeient degrees in sins, wM^ich was afterwards adopted by the Po- pish church. This distinction now embraces but two degrees; those \vhich are venial, and tliose which are mortal. The puifish- ment of the former consists in the temporary pains of purgatory. But for the latter, no pardon can be obtained but by confession to a priest, and the performance of penances imposed by him upon the offender. Augustine, the great luminary of the primitive church, embraced for a time the theories of Manes; and hence in his writings may be discovered indefinite and vague allusions to the system. The Church had not then reached that point of extravagance and folly.' '"In quo (dio jiulioii) nobis ost ille indcfcssnft ignis obonndiis, in quo subeimda ■ sunt gravia ilia cx|)iandoe a peccalis animic siipplioia." (Hillary.) Such was the obscure notion of another of the fathers on the subject. 3d century.] the church of christ. 79 Among other absurdities, Manes contended, that Christ was a mere phantom; and that lie ditl not therefore, sutrer pain upon ihe cross. He denied the resurrection of tlie body, but not that of the soul ; as it was to save the latter only that he appeared in the world. Augustine was not the only one of those venerable fathers ^vho adopted the errors and heretical opinions of the Manicha^ans. Hil- lary, who flourished in the fourth century, maintained, that "Christ was supposed to have felt pain, because he suffered ; but he was really free from all pain, because he is God." The custom of olfering up prayers for the sainis departed, was introduced into the Church in this century. " We pray," says Epiphanius, " for the just, the fathers, the patriarchs, the prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, &c., that we may distinguish the Lord Jesus Christ from the order of men, by that honor which we pay to him." In the liturgy of Chrysostom, bishop successively of Antioch and of Constantinople, there is a f^orm of prayer, "for all those who have departed this life." In a subsequent age, these departed saints became themselves the ohjecls of idolatrous wor- ship; and even their relics were held in religious veneration. The doctrine of the Trinity was at this time a subject of animat- ed controversy. Paul, of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, maintained that tlie Son and the Holy Ghost exist in God, as the faculties of reason exist in man. Tertullian had contended that the Father is the whole substance, and the Son a portion or derivation of that whole. Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, another father of the Church, de- clared the Son to be the work or workmanship of the Father. A coun- cil at Antioch, A. D. 269 ; which condemned Paul, decreed neverthe- less, that " The Son is not of the same essence with the Father." This decree denied the Jiomooiision, or consubstantiality of the Father and the Son. This question agitated tlie Church at differ- ent periods from this time, and has been variously decided ; one council condemning the judgment of another, and fathers maintain- ing opposite opinions. So diverse were these judgments and opin- ions, that it is impossible to determine what was the received doc- trine of the Church, at any period, for the first five or six centuries of the Christian era. Tiiere was no common tribunal, with appel- late jurisdiction, by whom an ordinance "ex cathedra" would de- finitively terminate all controversies. As an evidence of this, the council of Laodicea in 361, excluded by a decree, the Apocrypha from the canonical books of the Old Testament. All the canons of this council were inserted in the code of the Cliurch universal, and were therefore received as of binding authority on all. In 397, a Synod of Carthage ordained, that the Books of the Apocrypha should be read in their churches; and in the l)eginning of the fifth century, Pope Innocent I., repealed by his decree that of the coun- cil of Laodicea. The council at Nice, in 3i5, reversed the decree of the council at Antioch in 269 ; declaring that " The Son is con- 80 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [3d century. substantial with the Father ;" and thereby affirming the homoousion which the fatliers at Antioch had denied. But the great lights of the Church have been uncertain beacons in directing us to the truth. Tertullian maintained that, " The soul is propagated from the fatiier to the son by the natural course of generat on;" and Jerome after- wards affirmed, that this opinion was generally received by the western churches as orthodox in the age of Tertullian. He, how- ever, contended that " The soul is a new creation when united to the body," and informs us, that in his time the Church so believed. Cyril affirmed, that "The Holy Ghost proceeds properly from the Son." Theocioret replied, " To say that the Holy Ghost has its subsistence from the Son, or by the Son, is impious and blasphe- mous." The learning and sopliistry of the age were arrayed against the Christian Church. It was attacked, by the powers of eloquence and by the writings of the most highly endowed minds. Every artifice and every stratagem were resorted to ; having for their ob- ject the destruction of the entire building of which Christ himself was the chief corner-stone. These opponents, professing to be Christians, were more dangerous to evangelical truth by their cov- ert and insidious attacks upon the doctrines of the gospel. Another stratagem resorted to, was, to detract from the divine character of Jesus Christ, by a comparison of his life and holiness with the virtues of the ancient philosophers. The parallel was made more specious and imposing, by the fictions and exaggera- tions with which their delineations were heightened on the one hand, and by the misrepresentations and detractions to which they descended on the other. Nor were the Jews inactive in tlieir ma- licious attempts to prejudice the pagan world against the Christian Church. THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION. The middle of the third century was the period of a new era in the Christian Church. About a century had elapsed since the in- troduction of a new order of ecclesiastics in the government of the Church, and a century and a half since the first important innova- tion in the forms of the apostolic institution. A new system had arisen, but it was a system of falsehood and iniquity, retaining noth- ing of the purity and the simplicity of the original structure. A new form of government, new doctrines, new rites and ceremonies, new conditions of acceptance with God, moral principles alien from those inculcated in the gospel, constituted a system having scarcely a feature of resemblance to tliat building which was raised upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. Vice and superstition had banished all traces of vital religion. Those who should have been ministers of the truth, were but false prophets and lying teachers, who had 3d century.] the church of christ. 81 forsaken the right way ; beguiling unstable souls ; with hearts ex- ercised with covetous practices ; loving the wages of unrighteous- ness, and promising liberty while they were themselves the servants of corruption. Such was the character and the condition of the Cliurch ; without a form of godliness ; having a name without a spiritual life. In this age of moral degeneracy and general apostasy from the religion of the gospel, arose a man " of uncommon learning and eloquence, but of an austere and rigid character," who dared to denounce the abuses and corruption of a wicked hierarchy, and to raise the standard of reformation. Novatian, a presbyter of the Church in Rome, in the year 251, ai)jured his ecclesiastical connection, and organized a church on the forms and doctrines ^prescribed in the gospel ; of which he Avas elected an episcopal presbyter, or pastor. The bishops of the established churches, says Robinson, fond of proselytes, had encouraged unbecoming and vitiating practices in the admission of wicked and unbelieving persons into the bosom of the Church ; and had " transferrred the attention of Christians, from tlie old confederacy for virtue, to vain shows at Easter, and other Jewish ceremonies; adulterated, too, with paganism." No- vatian rigidly opposed those practices, and other abuses, which had overwhelmed the Church in a tide of infidelity and moral corrup- tion : and this opposition brought upon him a sentence of excom- munication, and an anathema was denounced against him as a schis- matic and a disorganizer. " People every where," says the same writer, "saw Avith Nova- tian, the same cause of complaint, and groaned for relief; and when one man made a stand for virtue, the crisis had arrived ; people saw the propriety of the cure, and applied the same means to their own relief" Novatian, and the churches which were formed upon the principles of reformation he advocated, have been unsparingl}"^ censured for the severity of their discipline, (they assumed them- selves the title of Cathari or Purita7is,) but the magnitude of the evils justly complained of, demanded an uncompromising hostility to vice in all its forms. All who saw the fatal departure of the Church from its primitive simplicity and purity, and desired its re- storation to spiritual excellence, rallied around the standard of re- formation, for the moral regeneration of Christendom. Puritan churches, as they were called, were established in almost every province of the empire ; and flourished for nearly three hundred years. In the midclle of the following century, they covered some of the most populous districts, or provinces, of Asia Minor; and in the reign of Constantine JI., the Novatians, who were then per- secuted for their adherence to the doctrines cf Athanasius, Avere extensively diffused through the provinces watered by the Halys; and had, no doubt, extended their settlements to the banks of the 6 82 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [3d ccntury. Euphrates. Before the middle of the fifth century they had plant- ed churches heyond the Volga, in Scythia; and history has record- ed the death of a Novatian bishop, in that northern region, in the year 439. There were among them, at dithsrent periods, writers of eminence and distinction. Of these, the names of Agehus, Ace- sius, Sisinnius, and Marcian of Constantinople, have been preserv- ed. " The vast extent of this sect," says Dr. Lardner, ■•' is mani- fest from the names of the authors who have mentioned them, or written against them, and from the several parts of the Roman em- pire in which they were found." Novatian published a treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity, in the year 257. His views were strictly in accordance with the lan- guage and spirit of the Scriptures of the New Testament, and are now admitted to be orthodox. In this worlvkhe treats of " the na- ture, power, goodness, justice, &c. of God the Father, and of the worship due to him*," " the prophecies in the Old Testament con- cerning Christ; their actual accomplishment; his nature; Scriptu- ral proofs of his Divinity, &c., and shows that it was Christ who appeared to the patriarchs, Abraham, Jacob, Moses," &c. ; " of the Holy Spirit; how promised ; given by Christ; his offices and operations on the souls of men, and in the Church," &c. His writings evince clearer views of the theology of the New Testa- ment, than the works of any preceding or cotemporary expounder of the Scriptures, Novatian was a regularly ordained presbyter of the Christian Church ; and was legitimately within the line of apostolic succes- sion.i jjjs church was organized on the true principles of the gos- pel ; and he was the ordained pastor of it one hundred and thirty- three years before the bishop of Rome assumed the title of Pope ; he was, therefore, not an anti-pope, as the papists have styled him; and five hundred years before the investiture of temporal powers in the pope ; his spiritual character, must of consequence, be unim- peachable, and his church be acknowledged a true and apostolic Christian church. But Novatian was excommunicated for heresy and schism. His heresy, however, was that of Paul, who worshipped the God of his fathers, believing in all things which are written in the law and the prophets ; and his schism an act of obedience to the command of God, " to come out from among them, and be separate, and not to touch the unclean thing." What part could he that believed 'IrencDus declares, that " Tiie succossioii, and together with it, tlie episcopate al- so, had, down to this day, (the latter part of the socond century,) descended through a series of presbyters, not of bishops." Both bishops and presbyters, must now trace the succession, if traced at all, tlirough the Church of Rome. 'J'herc were in this Church, at one time, four pontiffs, who all denounced each other as usurpers. All, in fine, that can bo pleaded on this subject, can be pleaded by presbyters, equal- ly with bishops." Dwighl's Theology, 161st Sermon. 4th century.] the church of christ. 83 have with those who were infidels ? Christ hath no concord with Belial : the temple of God no agreement with idols. If the excommunication of Novatian were a legitimate excision from the succession, let the advocates of apostolic lineage unite the broken links in this imaginary chain of presbyters, bishops, Metropolitans, patriarchs and popes, through a series of eighteen hundred years, from tlie martyrdom of Peter to the accession of his holiness, who "as God, now sitteth in the temple of God, show- ing himself that he is God." Let them but trace an unbroken suc- cession, through the first ten hundred years of cimmerian darkness which overshadowed the Christian Church, of popes precipitated from the chair of St. Peter; anathematized and excommunicated by their more successful rivals ; of two, and sometimes three and four usurpers exercising, at the same time, a spiritual authority over the Church, and mutually thundering on each other anathemas and curses, as schismatics, excommunicated heretics, and disor- ganizers. CHAPTERIV. We turn from that glimmering light which suddenly arose on a benighted world, in the middle of the last century, to the gloomy history of the Church, descending still deeper into the abyss of paganism and corruption. Happily for the religious liberty of man, that light was not extinguished. Although at times obscured by the moral darkness which overshadowed the Christian world, it con- tinued to cheer by its returning rays, the hopes of those whom God in every age reserved to himself, and who never bowed the knee to the im.age of Baal. Many of the events of this century occupy the most interesting, and the most important pages in the history of ancient Europe. — The invasion by the fierce and warlike nations of the North, gave the first great impulse to those revolutions in the political and civil institutions of the Christian states, which, in a few successive cen- turies after, changed the whole face of Europe ; and, within that time, and immediately proceeding out of those convulsive efforts, the temporal power of the Pope rose to its height and was firmly established. But the accession of Constantino to the imperial throne; his pro- tection of the Christians; his edict of religious toleration, and his subsequent conversion to Christianity, arc the most prominent and 84 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [4th cenluiy remarkable events connected with the progress and temporal pros- perity of the Church. Although not received into its bosom, through the rites of baptism, until the last moments of his life, he directed its atfairs, controlled its interests, and exercised an author- ity over its institutions throughout his reign. In the year 313, lie published his edict, securing to the Christians the undisturbed ex- ercise of their religion, and providing for the full restitution for the injuries inflicted upon them during their persecution under Diocle- tian. He restored their lands and places of public worship which had been confiscated ; and in the year 324 established the Christian worship throughout the empire. Throughout this century, however, the Church was alternately favored and persecuted by the dilferent emperors who ascended the throne. But in the reign of Theodosius the Great, the final down- fall of the pagan religion was accomplished. The division of the empire into East and West, after his death, was attended with im- portant results to the peace and internal tranquillity of the Church. .It was unavoidably productive of contentions ; and finally, of an irreparable separation of the Eastern and Western, or the Greek and Latin churches. The bishop of Rome, whose see embraced, before the reign of Constantine, the capital of the whole empire, found in the bishop of Constantinople, after that city became the capital of the eastern division, a formidable rival in his schemes of ambition. The prelate of this church was elevated to a rank, second only to the Romish bishop, by the councils of Constantinople in 381, and of Clialcedon in 451. These proceedings, with the pre- tensions of the Greek emperor, Zeno, in the year 482, to a sover- eignty over the Church, occasioned a schism between these two great branches of the Cliristian Chui-ch. Although a partial re- union was eflected in the beginning of the sixth century, the con- troversy which arose afterward, on tlie worship of images, pro- duced another division between them, which was widened by the obstinacy and aspiring views of their respective prelates. Finally, in the middle of the eleventh century, the Latins were openly charged with heresy by the patriarch of Constantinople; denunci- ations and excommunications followed, and these angry disputations were terminated by a formal and perpetual sej)aration. In the fif- teentli century, the invasion of the Eastern empire, by the Turks, induced the reigning sovereign, John VII., to })ropose to the West a restoration of ecclesiastical union; but the opposition of his cler- gy defeated the contemplated annexation ; and the subsequent sub- jugation of the country by the Mohammedans, raised an insur- mountable barrier to all future plans of reconciliation. So much of the relative history of the Greek and Latin churches I have thought i)roper to refer to, in anticipation. I shall now resume a narrative of the events of the fourth century. 4th century.] the church of christ. 85 Constantine, although a pagan until the close of his reign, exer- cised an entire control ov^er the institutions of the Christian Church. His decision of the Donatist controversy, as an ecclesiastical ques- tion, is conclusive of itself, of the authority wliich he claimed and enforced with the full acquiescence of the whole body of the cler- gy. The councils which were convened to deliberate and to de- termine on all matters involving the general interests of the Church, were assemblies altogether governed by his dictation, and subser- vient to his will. A spiritual supreme judge, by divine appoint- ment, was an officer not known in this century, and it will appear, in the progress of this history, that the ruling powers in the state exercised an unquestioned jurisdiction in all ecclesiastical matters, for many centuries after this period. The usurpations of the see of Rome, although continually advancing, were not finally consum- mated until the thirteenth century, when the title of Pope, or uni- versal Father, which had been assumed in this, by Siricius, bishop oi Rome, was conceded by all Christendom ; and " the popes as- sumed the authority of supreme arbiters in all controversies that arose concerning religion or church discipline; and maintained the pretended rights of the church against the encroachments and usur- pations of kings and princes." It was at this period they received the pompous tide of " Masters of the World." The bishop of Rome, in the beginning of the fourth century, was the bishop of a province, and was as such, a Metropolitan; as were all other bishops whose dioceses were provincial. But the Church of Rome, it was pretended, was founded not only by the great Apostle of the Gentiles, but by Peter, with whom the keys of heaven had been intrusted by Christ. Rome itself was the mis- tress of the world. It might therefore have been early foreseen, from these political and ecclesiastical influences co-operating, that hi the general struggle for pre-eminence, the bishop of Rome, with- out any real sanction of divine right, was destined in the course of time to acquire the ascendency. From these causes, then, we shall perceive the continued augmentation of power, which accompanied the efforts of this ambitious prelate ; and it is from this period we are to view him as having already acquired a marked and undispu- ted pre-eminence over all other prelates. ^ The election of a bishop was an act of the clergy, the nobles, and the whole body of the people. An eminent historian of this century, describing the scenes which occurred on that occasion, says: " An incredible multitude not only from that city, (Tours,) but also from the neighboring cities, convened to give their votes." (Sulp. Severus.) The tumultuous selection would sometimes be of a venerable presbyter, a devout monk, or a pious layman.- " The 'This undisputed pre-eminence must be viewed with a qualification, as regards t)ie Patriarch of Constantinople, and the clergy of the Greek Church. ^Gibbon's l^man Empire. 86 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [4th century. interested views; the selfish and angry passions; the arts of per- fidy and dissimulation ; the secret corruption; the open and even bloody violence which had formerly disgraced the freedom of elec- tion in the commonwealths of Greece and Rome, too often influ- enced the choice of the successors of the apostles." In the year 366, the election of a Pontiff, for such was the title then assumed by the bishop of Rome, occasioned a civil war in the city, " which was carried on with the utmost barbarity and fury, and produced the most cruel massacres and desolations." Bribery and force were the instruments of success. Two competitors for the office, were elected by the contending parties; and the tumults and disorders which ensued were only terminated by the expulsion from the city of the weaker candidate. Damascus triumphed; and forcibly seiz- ing upon the vacant see, excommunicated his rival, Ursicinus, and became the acknowledged and rightful successor of St. Peter. In the government of the Church, and in the management, gen- erally, of ecclesiastical affairs, all powers gradually concentrated in the episcopal head. The people were first excluded from a par- ticipation in the administration, and afterward the presbyters were compelled to relinquish the exercise of their ancient privileges. Thus was accomplished a further departure from the primitive forms of the Church ; and the rights of a spiritual obligarchy were becoming merged in an absolute despotism. Constantine new-modelled the laws and the forms of administra- tion in the government of the empire; and by his authority a new order was established in the clergy, corresponding with the new civil oflace instituted by him. Hence arose the novel title of Patri- arch ; and this, attached to the several Metropolitan bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, and some time after to the bishop of Constantinople, elevated these prelates to a rank above all other provincial bishops in the Church. The exarch was at the same time created, subordinate to the patriarch; but invested with a ju- risdiction superior to the Metropolitan. But it should be here re- marked, that the patriarch of Rome, who became afterward pon- tiff and pope, and indeed was already distinguished by those titles, has always been styled bishop, as a Scriptural title of distinction, and a more authoritative expression of the apostolic character. The several orders of the clergy, from the patriarch down, were alike subject to the civil laws of the empire; nor did they, as ec- clesiastics, claim any peculiar exemptions from the penalties at- tached to their violation. These several orders, as established under the authority of Con- stantine, were the first and highest in dignity, prerogatives and privileges, the patriarchs. The title of this ecclesiastical dignitary was derived from certain spiritual superintendents, to whose au- thority the Jews, after their dispersion, submitted ; and may, per- haps, be traced from a still higher antiquity in the history of that 4th century.] the church of christ. 87 people. Their powers were not universally the same in the Chris- tian Church ; dittering according to the laws or customs of the dif- ferent countries in which tliey existed. The patriarch of Constan- tinople extended his jurisdiction over the patriarchates of Ephesus and Caesarea. The patriarch of Alexandria had the right of con- secrating and approving of all the bishops wiihin his spiritual su- pernitendency ; which all had not. They were empowered to assemble the clergy under their respective jurisdictions to attend to the interests of the Church. They possessed appellate jurisdic- tion in all charges alledged against the bislwps ; but the emperors, and the councils interposed their powers when complaints were carried up to them of the unjust and arbitrary decisions of the pa- triarchal court. Innumerable evils arose out of the institution of this order. They encroached upon the prerogatives of the bish- ops ; encouraged dissentions among them ; excited disputes and diiferences among the clergy generally ; subsidized the monks to create prejudices in the minds of the people against the bishops': and thus, by their insidious machinations, they not only assisted in destroying the discipline and corrupting the purity of the Church, but they enlarged tlieir own powers, and acquired a fatal ascend- ency over the clergy and the people. Added to these, there was a continued struggle among themselves for supremacy and rank. This will be shown in the progress of their history. This contest for power contributed to the elevation of the Ro- man patriarch. Those of Antioch and Alexandria, unable to resist the encroachments of the patriarch of Constantinople, were com- pelled to throw themselves upon the protection of that prelate ; and thus he became their protector, and in time, the supreme arbi- ter in all controversies of an ecclesiastical nature. The next in order were tlie exarchs. This was a civil, as well as an ecclesiastical title. The latter seems to have been derived from the former. This was the title attached to the viceroys of the Eastern emperors. As a matter of history, it may be here stated, that the viceroy or exarch of the provinces in Italy, selected Ra- venna as the seat of his government; and the connection of this, witli the liistory of the pope's accession of temporal power, will appear in the narration of the events of the eighth century. .The exarch in the Church had an ecclesiastical jurisdiction over several provinces ; and his powers appear to have been of a supervisory character. He seems to have performed the duties of a " custos et conservator ecclesicc ;'''* taking cognizance of the morals of the cler- gy ; of the observance of the canons of the Church; the manner of celebrating divine service, &:c. The civil exarchs were also called patricians. The third in order were the Metropolitans; under whom were the arch-bishops, who were limited in their jurisdiction to certain districts of country ; and the lowest in the ecclesiastical orders of 88 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [4th ceiitury. the episcopacy, were the bishops. Such was the orgamzation of the Clmrch by the dictation of Constantine ; an organization utter- ly subversive of the system of government adopted by the apostles. Hitherto, the title of bishop sanctioned by the inspired writers, had been retained as expressive of the highest trust reposed in the ministers of the gospel, although attached in the preceding century to a dignitary unknown in the apostolic church. The whole Scrip- tural system was now radically changed ; and new titles derived from the civil institutions of the empire, were attached to ecclesi- astical othces, invested with extraordinary privileges and powers. This revolution left few vestiges of the ancient structure. Those who assumed to be the pastors of the flock of God, had now be- come, for filthy lucre, lords over God's heritage. The Metropolitan was no longer the representative of the Jew- ish high-priest. The patriarch of Rome united in himself, the priesthood of the Jewish, and the pontificate of the Pagan temples. The highest sacerdotal title in the ancient forms of divine worship, as well as, that in the administration of the heathen ceremonies and rites of the Romans, the priest and the pontiff, distinguished above all the dignitaries of the Christian Church, the bishop of Rome. — The successor of " the Apostles" claimed also, the peculiar emi- nence of a succession in the order of the " Maximi Pontifices." This order, instituted by Numa, preserved a regular succession to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The Caesars were proud of the distinction. Augustus assumed the office as one of dignity and power. The successive occupants of the imperial tli rone,' retained it as a prerogative of the crown ; but the piety of Gratian rejected the pontifical robe, as the vesture of pagan superstition ; and the patriarch of the Christian Church assumed it as the appropriate habiliment of his priestly office. Neither the Metropolitans nor bishops acknowledged the patri- arch as the source of their spiritual poweis; nor did they admit that their tenure of office depended upon his will. They were elected by the clergy and the people; and after investiture, dis- charged their several duties as under a divine authority, indepen- dent of the Roman see. The indecisive course pursued by Constantino, and his succes- sors, who professed the Christian faith, in their toleration of reli- gion, tended to the corruption of the Christian Church. The abom- inable acts of pagan idolatry were suppressed by Constantine, but his early prejudices restrained him from j)rohibiting their supersti- tious rites; and this equal patronage extended to Christianity and to Paganism, occasioned an admixture of their forms of worship, which fatally corrupted the former. Of his son Constantius it was said, that "although he had embraced a ditferent religion, he never attempted to deprive the empire of the sacred worship of antiqui- ty ;" and Dr. Moshcim remarks, that " The rites and institutions 4th century.] the church of christ. 89 by which the Greeks, Romans, and other nations, had formerly testified their relii^ious veneration for fictitious deities, were now adopted, with some shght alterations, by Christian bishops, and employed in the service of the true God." In tlieir external forms of worship there were but perceptible shades of diflerence. The toga praetexta of the Pontifex Maxi- mus, was imitated in the surplice worn by the bishop in his minis- trations ; the lituus, or crooked staff, borne by the Augurs in their divinations, furnished the pattern of the crosier ; the ceremony of processions, which are in the present day so frequent in the Popish Cliurch, originated in this century, and was copied from the cus- tom among the ancient Romans of proceeding to their temples with solemnity, to offer up prayers or supplications to their gods, in hon- or of particular deities, for thanksgiving, or for averting calami- ties; the celebration of the Lupercalia, agreeably to the ancient rites, introduced at this time, but substituted in the following cen- tury by the festival of the purification of the blessed Virgin; the images, the costly vessels, and the whole pageantry of their reli- gious ceremonies, point to the features of resemblance between the two religions. In the administration of the sacrament, tl)e bread and wine were held up to the view of the communicants ; and from this simple act, was introduced the imposing ceremony of the ele- vation of the Host.' A new impulse seems to have been given in this age to superstitious observances. A religious veneration for departed saints, matured into religious worship. The virtue of consecrated water obtained universal belief among the ignorant. Miraculous powers were attributed to sacred relics. The Pagan rites for appeasing the anger of their gods, were introduced into the Christian Church, with new and imposing solemnities. In short, the artful devices of the clergy sunk the Christian world into the depths of corruption and vice ; whilst every downward step left the aspiring hierarchy in possession of increased powers, and open- ed a wider field to the ambition of the Roman pontiff, whose usur- pations were continually extending his prerogatives. The Donatists were a formidable body of schismatics, but their influence was not felt beyond the limits of the African cliurches. The doctrine of the Trinity became a fruitful source of contro- versy in the early part of this century, through the zeal and the eloquence of Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria ; who maintained, that the Son was in his essence, distinct from the Father; that he was the first and the noblest creature of God^s workmanship ; that he was the instrument by whose subordinate operation, the Al- 'Lord Bolingbrokc, bcinrr present at the elevation of the Ijost in tlio cathedral at Paris, expressed to a nolilcmaii who stood near liini, liis surprise tliat the king of France should commit tlic performance of Buch an august and strikiiinr ceremony to any subject. (Moshcim.) Tlio practice was, some time after this century, intro- duced, of carrying the consecrated elements, in u cibory or covered chalico, tlirough the streets of a city, as an object of vvorsiiip. 90 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [4th century, mighty created the universe ; that he was consequently, inferior to the Father ; that the Holy Spirit was created by the Son. This was the doctrine of the homoiousion, which denied the consub- stantiality of the Father and the Son. His followers were divided into numerous sects. They dilfered from the Gnostics, who believed Christ to have been an emanation from the Supreme Being ; but not a co- worker in the creation of the world ; and that he was sent to rescue man from the evils in- flicted upon him by the Demiurgus or Creator. Arius advanced his opinions in a controversy with his bishop, Alexander, in the year 316; and as irrational and unscriptural as they are, by his learning, sophistry, and eloquence, he seduced over to his side, many of the most distinguished theological scholars of the age ; among whom was the ecclesiastical historian, Eusebius. Eudoxius, patriarch of Antioch, and of Constantinople ; Acacius, bishop of Caesarea ; Aetius, bishop of Antioch; Eunomius, who was eminent for his literary acquirements, severally became the leaders of dillerent sects who adopted the Arian creed. Constan- tine countenanced, if he did not assent to the doctrine. His son and successor, Constantius, not only defended the disciples of Ari- us, but persecuted their opponents. Valens supported their cause; and is charged with the burning of eighty ecclesiastics who were Athanasians. The great antagonist of Arius, was Athanasius, bishop of Alex- andria. His doctrine maintained, ''-one God in Trinity, and Trin- ity in Unity." He affirmed, that "there is one person of the Fa- ther, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost ;" that "the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one — the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal." In his system he supports the doctrine of Christ's human and divine natures, as united in one person. Athanasius maintained, therefore, the doc- trine of the homoousion, or the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son. The first general or ecumenical council of the Church, was con- vened by tlie order of Constantine, at Nice, in Bithynia, in the year 325, with a view of composing the dillcrences ^vhich disturbed the Christian Church. The Novatian bishop, Acesius,^ was invited by the emperor to take a seat in the council. Tlie Arian controversy was the important subject submitted to the council ; and after long and animated discussions, the doctrine of Athanasius was declared to be orthodox and sound in faith, and Arius was condemned. The Nicene creed declared, that " the Son was begotten of his Father before all worlds; God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, of one sub- stance with the Father, by whom all things were made," &c. 'The Novatian bishops enjoyed no higlier privileges and distinctions than tlio an- gels, ejiiscojKil presbyters, or bishops of iho early part of the second century. 4th century.] the church of christ. 91 In the preceding- century, the council which convened at Antioch in the year 269, decided that " the Son is not of the same essence with the Father." The assembled fathers at Nice, by their judg- ment against Arius, now pronounced that decision heretical, and deserving the severe anathemas of the Church ; for they declared, that " all who do not keep undefiled and holy, the faith, shall with- out doubt, perish everlastingly ;" which faith they aflirmed to be expressed and explained in the decree of the council ; and Arius, by their sentence was excommunicated as a heretic, and banished. In the year 330 he was recalled by Constantine ; who also re- pealed the laws which had condemned him, and by another council convened at Tyre, he was restored to the privileges of the Church ; whilst Athanasius was in turn deposed and banished. " Hence arose, says Mosheim, endless animosities and seditions ; treacher- ous plots, and open acts of injustice and violence between the par- ties. Council was assembled against council, and their jarring and contradictory decrees spread perplexity and confusion throughout the Christian w^orld." In the year 360, the council consisting of four hundred bishops, of Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and lllyricum, which convened at Rimini, in Italy, reversed the Nicene decree, and re-affirmed the homoiousian doctrine of the council of Antioch.i During the reign of Conslantius, a large portion of the Western Church, with Liberius, the patriarch of Rome, became proselytes to the Arian faith. When Jovian ascended tlic throne, the Homoousians triumphed, and the doctrines of Athanasius were pronounced the orthodox doctrines of the church. Under the em- peror Valens, the Arians obtained again the ascendency ; but when Theodosius assumed the reins of government, the Nicene creed became the standard of the orthodox faith. Such were the fre- quent changes in the course of this century, of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity ; and in this century flourished some of the brightest luminaries of the Church : such as, Eusebius, Athan- asius, Basil, Cyril, Chrysostom, the two Gregories of the Greek Church, and Hilary, Lactantius, Jerome, and Augustin of the Latin. The second general or ecumenical council assembled by Theo- dosius, in the year 381, confirmed the Nicene creed, and settled in a more definite manner, the doctrine of the Trinity. In this coun- cil, which convened at Constantinople, the patriarch of that city was elevated to a rank next to the patriarch of Rome. This exci- ted the jealousy of that pontiff, and the anger of the patriarchs of Antioch and of Alexandria. In the sixth canon of this council, the trial of all bishops accused is committed to provincial diocesan synods. This was oflensive also to the Roman prelate, wlio had advanced pretensions to a right of jurisdiction in their trial and de- position. ' " Tlie whole world grieved," said .Icromo, " and was surprised to find itself Ari- an." The Latin bishops professed to havo been deceived. 92 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [4th century. THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORiMATION. The Council of Nice had quieted the controversy which dis- turbed the peace of the Church, on the re-admission into Cliristian communion of those who had lapsed from the faith. This ques- tion had been one of angry disputation between the Papal and No- vatian churches. The Athanasian doctrines which formed the creed of the Novatians, were adopted as the rule of orthodox faith ; and the Novatian Church was represented in that council in the person of its bishop.' These circumstances had produced a toler- ation of religious differences on the one part, and imagined securi- ty in the enjoyment of their rites and forms of worship on the oth- er. But the Christian world was still divided on the question of the Trinity; and the persecution of the weaker party, as each would alternately prevail, was carried on with unabated violence and animosity. The severity of this persecution was felt in a pe- culiar degree by the Novatians in the East, They extended, at this period, over the populous provinces of Asia-Minor. In the reign of Constantius, the district of country between the provinces of Bithynia and Cappadocia, became the seat of a relent- less and cruel war, carried on by the strong-arm of the government ; and which terminated only with their utter defeat and dispersion. The execution of this purpose was intrusted by the emperor to the Arian bishop, Macedonius, In the first encounter, the Roman legions were defeated. The zeal and courage of the Novatians, armed with their implements of husbandry, triumphed over the numbers and the discipline of the imperial forces ; and in one en- gagement they obtained a victory over their enemies, by the slaught- er of four thousand soldiers on the field of battle. But overcome at length, by an irresistible strength, and the persevering spirit of Macedonius, they were given up to the sword of their merciless invaders. They were pursued, and massacred. Those who es- caped the sword fled into distant provinces. Such was the issue of this unequal conflict. But the survivors, still maintaining the doctrines, diffused their tenets over the more northern and inacces- sible regions of tlie empire; preserved the purity of their faith and their forms of worship, and in the beginning of the seventh century, re-a])pearcd in the religious world; having retained their aversion to the superstitious rites and the idolatry of the Greek and Latin churches, but lost tlie distinctive name of their ancient found- er. As Novatians, they are traced in history to the middle of the fifth century, with flourisliing churches beyond the Volga. They re-appcar as Paulicians. In the middle of this century, Aerius, a preshyter of Schastia, in Pontus, endeavored to restore the Church to its primitive forms. 'This privilege was conceded to the Novatians through the influence of Constan- tine. 4th century.] the church of christ. 93 He opposed the whole system of episcopacy as then established ; maintainina,-, that it was a subversion of the simple plan of govern- ment instituted by the apostles; as the office of bishop was not dis- tinct fiom tliat of presbyter agreeably to Scripture. " For this opinion chiefly, he is ranked anions^ the heretics, by Epiphanius, his cotemporary, wiio calls it a notion full of folly and madness:" and for this eflbrt to reform the abuses in the government and rites of the Church, his followers were expelled from the cities, and ob- liged to conduct their public worship in places of secret retire- ment. Notwithstanding this sentence of condemnation against Aeri- us and his Ibllowers, it is recorded in history with undoubted au- thority, that many orthodox writers of the age, whose opinions were so regarded by the Church, believed that the dill'erence be- tween those two offices was not founded on divine precept; but was one of human contrivance, and simply of ecclesiastical right. Bellarmine, who was an oracle of the Papal Church in the sixteenth century, testifies, that "Jerome was, in this point, of Aerius' opin- ion; and that not only he, but also Ambrose, Augustine, Sedulus, Primasius, Chrysostom, Theodoiet, Oecumenius, and Theophylact, all maintained the same heresy."^ When in the Council of Trent, A. D. 1550, Medina maintained the rightful superiority of a bishop over a presbyter, and these authorities were adduced against him, he replied, " That it is no marvel that they, and some others also, of the fathers, fell into this heresy ; this point being not then clearly determined." Aerius is considered as the father of the modern Presbyterians. " How far," says Mosheim, " he pursued his opinions on this subject, through its natural consequences, is not certainly known; but we know, with the utmost certainty, that it was highly agreeable to many good Christians, who were no long- er able to bear the tyranny and arrogance of the bishops of this century." But this Avas not the only measure of reform advanced by Aerius. He condemned the practice of offering up prayers for the dead ; rejected many other rites of the Churcti as founded on superstition ; and opposed the observance of stated fasts, and the celebration of the festival of Easter. These reformers of the fourth century, appeared first along the coast of the Euxine; extended southwardly to the Mediterranean, and eastwardly to the banks of the Araxcs, in the province of Ar- menia. Whether they maintained any Christian communion with the churches of the Novatians, who at the same period had flour- ishing settlements in that portion of Asia-Minor, is not known. — Whether the bishops, who had the oversight of tiie Novatian churches, in this century, were simply episcopal presbyters, as in- stituted by their founder in the last century, has been a question in controversy. They may, in the progress of time, have increased 'Daille, on the Fathers. 94 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [4th ccntury. their powers, and extended their jurisdiction beyond those original- ly attached to their office. That they liad fallen into this manifest corruption, is not conclusively inferable, however, from the title of bishop, as this was a distinguishing appellation of the teaching and ruling elder of the Apostolic Church. Neither is it inferable from the circumstance of Acesius having been received into the council at Nice; Athanasius, himself, being (at the time,) a deacon only of the Church of Alexandria, and a distinguished member of that as- sembly. The Novatian and Aerian churches were unquestionably Chris- tian churches ; strictly modelled agreeably to the forms establish- ed by the apostles; orthodox in their faith; and free from those deformities and corrupt innovations, which disfigured the Romish Church, and debased its religion into a system of refined Pagan- ism. From the middle of the third century, we trace " the Church of Christ" as truly existing separate and distinct from that ecclesiasti- cal polity ; purified from the contamniations of Pagan superstition, and restored to its original simplicity in government and worship; and preserved through subsequent ages, by those witnesses of the truth, whom God in his providence and grace, successively raised up in testimony of his faithfulness. When the prophet of the Lord complained, that his prophets were killed, and his altars destroyed, and that he was left alone; God assured him, that he had reserved to himself seven thousand men, who had not bowed the knee to the Image of Baal. This century is the epoch of the conquest of the Western Em- pire, and its complete subjugation by the Goths, and the savage, but warlike tribes which issued out of Germany. In the year 476, the '' kingdom of Italy" was founded by the Heruli, from the wild regions of Scandinavia, under their leader, Odoacer. In 493 the Ostrogoths invaded Italy, and Theodoric, their king, established in his own person, a new dynasty on the throne. These, in the fol- lowing ccntury, were conquered by the Lombards. Some of the German tribes had embraced Christianity before their hostile incursions; but a greater part of them w^erc convert- ed not long after their settlement in Italy. The Burgundians on the Rhine ; the Vandals, who first assaulted and took Rome, in the year 455, and afterward extended their conquests and their posses- sions in Africa, from Carthage to ti)e Pillars of Hercules, and eventually occupied the southern borders of Spain; the Suevi, in the north-western portion of Spain; and the Gotlis, who first over- ran Greece and the Peloponnesus, and afterward a part of Italy and Gaul, adopted after their conversion to Christianity, the doc- trines of the Arians. Amid these intestine commotions and revolutions of empire and kingdoms, the cause of Christianity necessarily suffered. The 5th century.] the church of christ. 95 Western churches relapsed still further into the rites of Pagan idol- atry. The very calamities which befell Europe were imputed to the desertion of the heathen gods, by those who were inimical to the Christian religion; and strong ellorts were made to overthrow it, and to substitute the polytheistic \vorship of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The mild government of tl\e successors of the rude and uncivilized invaders, tended however, to meliorate the condi- tion of the people; and comparisons have been drawn by histori- ans, between the manners of the Goths and the Romans, highly creditable to the former. The administration, particularly of Tlie- odoric, has been eulogised for the equity of its laws, and the equal justice with which they were enforced. After the first shock of these political changes, the influence of the Church was accelera- ted ; and whilst it continued to extend its power and obtain strong- er control over the public mind, it hastened its own downward ten- dency to corruption and vice. The elevation of the patriarch of Constantinople to the second rank in the Christian world, was but calculated to excite the am- bition and to encourage the aspirations after power, of that formid- able rival of the Roman pontitf. These pretensions were still fur- ther strengthened by a decree of the fourth ecumenical council convened at Chalcedon, in the year 451, which accorded to that prelate, the same rights and honors which had been conceded to the Roman see; and which confirmed his jurisdiction, recently assumed by him, over Asia, Thrace and Pontus. These measures were strenuously resisted by Leo, surnamed the Great, who then occu- pied the papal throne. This elevation of the patriarch of Constan- tinople, which raised him to an eminence equal to that of the head of the Latin Church, led to unremitted struggles for supremacy be- tween them. The influence which the Eastern patriarch had acquired by the decree of the council at Constantinople, in 381, was opposed by the papal court at Rome; and to counteract it, tlie most fraudulent devises were resorted to. The maxim, long before this period in- troduced into the moral code of the Romish church, that "it is an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by that means the interest of the Church might be promoted," became a ruling principle, and was practically carried out in this contest for spiritual power. In the beginning of this century, Zosimus the pope, forged certain can- ons, which he averred had been decreed by the council of Nice, in 325, and imposed them upon the councils in Africa, as authentic documents.! These fictitious canons acknowledged the bishop of Rome, as "the universal bishop and head of the whole Christian Church." These pretended decrees liave never appeared in any of the genuine copies of the canons of that council ; and although 'Daille, on the right use of the Fathers. 96 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [5th century. diligent search was made in the archives of the several churches of Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, at the time, nothing was discovered which could give to the falsehood of Zosimus, a sem- blance of veracity. They were pronounced to be artful forgeries, and were disregarded by all the Churches except those under the jurisdiction of the Romish see. His successor, Boniface I., with equal effrontery, advanced his pretensions Lo supremacy upon the authority of those condemned documents. Notwithstanding the detection and exposure of this fraudulent attempt; not many years after, Leo, in his letter to the emperor Theodosius, claimed upon this autliority the power of judging of all points of faith, and of the prelates of the Church. In the coun- cil of Chalcedon, in the year 451, in which were convened six hundred bishops, " the very flower and choice of the whole clergy," the legates of pope Leo, w'ere bold enough to assert, that the sixth canon of the council of Nice, declared that " The Church of Rome has always had the primacy." " Words," says a distin- guished writer,' " which are no more found in any Greek copies of the councils, than are those other pretended canons of pope Zosimus; neither do they appear in any Greek or Latin copies, nor so mucii as in the edition of Dlonysius Exiguus, who lived about fifty years after this council." Modern papists have endeavored to rescue from reproach the characters of those fraudulent pontilfs, by the suggestion that they innocently confounded the canons of the council of Sardica with those of Nice. The council of Nice, convened in the year 325, by the authority of theemper or Constantine, to determine the Arian controversy. This city was in Bithynia, a province of Asia Minor. The council of Sardica assembled, in the reign of Constans, in the year 347, to decide a controversy on the conflicting claims to the episcopal chair of two rival aspirants. This was a city of Illyri- cum, a province on the nortli-castern borders of the Adriatic. Tliis was not a general council, and although it has been appealed to, as unquestionable authority, by the advocates of papacy, its canons have never been received by the churches as ecumenical. Their dehates were but hostile altercations between the eastern and wes- tern bishops; and the former, from an apprehension of danger, withdrew from the assembly. From that ])eriod has been dated the disagreement between the Greek and Latin churches. This coun- cil prohibited the election of a successor to a deposed bishop, until the Roman pontiff" had decided on the merits of his appeal. The jealousy and rivalship between the two primates were, soon after the council of Chalcedon, cxliibited in a spiritual Avarfare be- tween them, of a most bitter and vindictive character. Felix II., bisiiop of Rome, anathematized and excommunicated Acaeius, the bishop of Constantinople, as a perhdious enemy of the truth. Aca- 'Daille, on the Fathers. 5th century.] the church of christ. 97 cius received with contempt this sentence issued from the chair of St. Peter, and in turn anathematized and excommunicated the Ro- man pontiff, and ordered his name to be struck out of the sacred register of bishops. "This sentence of Acacius was confirmed by the emperor, by the church of Constantinople, by almost all the Eastern bishops, and even by Andreas, of Thessalonica, the pope's vicar for East Illyricum." In retaliation, the Western churches erased also the name of Acacius, from the diptychs. Such was the contest carried on between the spiritual heads of the Church. In the mean time religion itself continued to decline in spiritual- ity. All the rites and ceremonies of the Chui'ch were modeled to captivate the admiring multitude. Costly edifices were erected; resembling in their style and decorations the temples of the gods. The vestments of the officiating priests were resplendent with rich ornaments. Images of the saints and of the Virgin Mary, crowded the sanctuaries of worship. Altars of solid silver were erected, and chests of the same precious metal were provided, for deposi- tories of the bones of martyrs. The most demoralizing innovation made in the established customs of the Church, was the substitu- tion, by Leo, of private auricular confession, for that public con- fession before the religious congregation which all penitents had been required to make. The worship of images, and of departed saints, began at this time to form a part of public as well as of-pri- vate religious service. The doctrine of purgatory may be consid- ered as now constituting an essential article in their code of faith. Thus do we perceive in this century, all the superstitious observan- ces which have been so deeply engrafted in the papal church mar- shalling in close array. In the early part of this century, Pelagius introduced his doc- trines, which denied " The original corruption of human nature, and the necessity of divine grace to enlighten the understanding and to purify the heart." They were favorably received in some of the Eastern churches, and the bishop of Jerusalem openly protected those who adopted them. Augustine opposed them with his learn- ing and talents ; and the controversy which arose was referred to Zosimus, who then filled the pontifical chair. This pontifi^", who founded his pretensions to the title of universal bishop, ujion forged canons, which he attempted to impose upon the Christian world as the genuine decrees of the council of Nice, declared tliese doc- trines of Pelagius sound in faith. The African bishops, zealously sustained by Augustine, warmly controverted this decision of the infallible head of the Church. Zosimus, unable to reply to their objections, and forced, by the general judgment pronounced against those doctrines, to reverse his papal decree, condemned Pelagius and his disciples, whom he had previously protected, and pursued them with the utmost severity. 7 98 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [5th century. Another question whieh agitated the Church in this century, was in reference to the appropriate title of the Virgin Mary. This arose from the confused notions still prevailing on the hypostatical union of Christ's human and divine nature. Divines differed in the phraseology with which they expressed their opinions of the true character of this hypostasis. Some drawing too widely a distinc- tion between " the Son of God" and " the Son of Man ;" others too intimately blending them together. Hence arose the contro- versy, whether the Virgin Mary should be called " the mother of God" {Theotokos) or "the mother of Christ" {Christ otokos.) Nes- torius, a Syrian bishop of Constantinople, and his disciple Anasta- sius, adopted the latter title. For this opinion Nestorius was con- demned by a council at Alexandria, in the year 430, convened at the instance of Cyril, bishop of that city. Nestorius retorted on his accuser, by charging him with the Apollinarian heresy, or con- founding the two natures of Christ, and thundering his anathemas against liim. A general council was convened at Ephesus, A. D. 431, by order of the emperor Theodosius, the Younger, which de- cided, that Nestorius was " guilty of blasphemy against the divine majesty ;" deprived him of his episcopal dignity and banished him. Another council convened at Antioch, soon after, pronounced against Cyril, a sentence of condemnation, marked with all the violence of that which had been thundered against Nestorius.- These conflicting decrees of the councils and discordant opinions of the bishops, are indisputable evidences of the errors, in matters of faith, into which the highest judicatories of the papal church have fallen. By the twenty-fourth article of the creed of pope Pius IV., whatever has been delivered, defined and declared, by the sacred canons and ecumenical councils, must be received and professed by every papist, as an ai^icle of faith ; and whatever is contrary thereto, and all heresies condemned, rejected and anathe- matized, by the Church, must be by him condemned, rejected and anathematized. By the fourteenth article of the same creed, he professes " to admit the Holy Scriptures in the same sense that holy Mother Church does, Avhose business it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of them; and to interpret them accord- ing to the unanimous sense of the fathers." The conscience of every papist must be laid upon the bed of Procrustes, to be stretched out, or to be lopped off, to suit the discordant standards to which it is applied. Ambrose, of the fourth century, says, " Many times have the clergy erred; the bishop has wavered in his opinion; the rich men have adliercd in their judgment to the earth- ly princes of the world ; meanwhile the people alone preserved the faith entire." Jerome also testifies as to the credibility of the fath- ers, when he says, " I place the apostles in a distinct rank from all 'Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. 5th century.] the church of christ. 99 other writers; for as for them, they always speak truth ; but as for those other, they err sometimes, like men, as they were." Cyril remarks " Believe me not in whatsoever I shall simply deliver, un- less thou find the things which I shall speak demonstrated out of the Holy Scriptures."^ The fathers admit themselves that their opinions are not to be received as authoritative, but subjected to the standard of the gospel. The unanimous sense of the fathers can- not be obtained on any one point of faith; for they have differed in opinions, not only in matters of faith, but also of practice. It is equally impossible to ascertain what has been the belief or the judg- ment of the Church, taken either singly or as a whole, on any of the points in controversy of the present or of a preceding age. This has sufficiently appeared in our progress through the history of the preceding centuries, and will be more strongly exhibited in the subsequent history of the Church. These are the infallible standards of faith to which the bigoted votary of Rome has re- signed his conscience! Nestorius maintained, that " There were in Christ two distinct persons, one divine, the otiier human; this union was formed at the moment of conception ; not of nature or person, but of will and affection. God dwelt in Christ as in his Temple; and therefore Mary was properly ' the mother of Christ,' and not the mother of God." The Nestorians were condemned by the council of Alexandria. But about eighteen years after the termination of this controversy, (by the deposition of their leader and his banishment to Arabia, where he closed his solitary life in the desert,) Eutyches, an abbot in Constantinople, who violently opposed their doctrines, main- tained, that " The two natures, which existed in Christ before his incarnation, became one after it, by the hyposfatical union." This was construed to be a denial of the human nature of Clirist, and a council assembled by Flavian, the bishop of that see, in the year 448, degraded him from his office and pronounced against him a sentence of excommunication. Thus did one council condemn Nestorius, and another his opponent. To reconcile these differences and to put an end to the contro- versy which seemed to have been sustained by a confusion of terms, and by a profound ignorance of the subject, an ecumenical council was convened at Epliesus,- in the following year, by the emperor Theodosius. Eutyches was acquitted of the charges alledged against him by the council of Constantinople; and Flavian, whose influence had procured his condemnation, was publicly scourged 'Daille on the Fatliers. -This council, at Ephesiis, was called by the Latin?, '' Conventus Lalromtm,''^ and by the Greeks, " Siinodon /.csfriTcen ;" from the turbulence of its proceedings and the savage barbarity of its character. 100 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [5th ceiitury. with the most cruel severity, and afterwards banished to Epipas, a city of Lydia. In the year 451, the council of Chalcedon assembled. The Eutychian doctrines were condemned. Dioscorus, the bishop of Alexandria, who liad presided over the council of Ephesus, was deposed and banished to Paphlagonia ; and the acts of that council were annulled, THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. The power of papacy, aided by the secular arm of the empire, and strengthened by the credulity, the ignorance and the submission of the people, effectually suppressed every effort to bring about a moral regeneration in society. Superstition, which was the main- spring of all its operations, exercised an irresistible influence on the minds of all classes of men ; and it was the policy of popery to control the public feeling and sentiment by an address to the corrupt passions of the heart. It is true that attempts were made to restore true religion and piety to the Church, but these laudable efforts were defeated by the force of ecclesiastical power. Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria, displayed his zeal for the Church and his hatred of heresy, by a brutal persecution of the Novatians; who, in the language of Gibbon, were "The most innocent and harmless of the Sectaries." The prohibition of their public wor- ship, and the confiscation of their ecclesiastical possessions, were among the earliest measures of the administration of his sacred office. Vigilantius, the Protestant of the age and a presbyter of a church in Spain, propagated in this century his doctrines of reformation. He was a man " remarkable for his learning and eloquence." He reprobated the worship of saints ; condemned the religious veneration rendered to the tombs and bones of the martyrs ; op- posed the celibacy of the clergy and the observance of fasls; main- tained that the practice of burning tapers, in the churches, and at the tombs of the saints, in the day, was derived from pagan super- stition; and advanced opinions adverse to those of the clergy on the causes of the corrupt state of the Church and the means of its reformation. For liis opposition to the superstitious rites of wor- ship, he is compared by Jerome to the Hydra, to Cerberus, to the Centaurus, and who calls him " the organ of the Daemon." Many bishops^ in Gaul and Spain, countenanced the efforts of Vigilantius, but they were silenced by the angry murmurs of the Churcli ; and Vigilantius himself was formally condemned and pro- nounced a heretic. 'Proli ! nefas, episcopos sui secleris dicilur liabnre consortea. Hicr. in Vigil. 6th century.] the church of christ. 101 CHAPTER V. The French monarchy was founded by Clovis, in the close of the last century. It embraced previously but a few provinces on the right bank of the Rhine. He was converted to Christianity, and was baptized, with three thousand of his subjects. In this cen- tury many of the pagan nations were brought within the pale of the Church. Augustine, prior of the monastery of St. Andrew, was sent over to Britain in the year 596, and succeeded in the pro- pagation of the gospel. He changed the heathen temples into sanctuaries of Christian worship. He is considered the first arch- bishop of that kingdom. Columba, an Irish monk, compelled to leave his native country by the civil commotions in which he had taken part, about the year 565, went to Scotland. He there preached the gospel ; and from his success in the conversion of the inliabitants, he received the title of " the apostle of the Picts." Numbers of the Jews were also persuaded to embrace the tenets of the Christian religion; but in Spain and Gaul coercive measures were resorted to, and they were compelled to renounce their an- cient faith and to submit to the ordinance of baptism. The external affairs of the Church were generally prosperous; and the light of gospel truth continued to penetrate the distant regions of paganism and idolatry; but its internal affairs exhibited neither peace nor purity. The ambition of the bishops of Rome and Constantinople, the overbearing temper of those who filled the subordinate dioceses, and the corrupt practices of all orders of the clergy ; together with the novel doctrines which continually agi- tated the Christian world, were fruitful sources of contention, and vitiated the pure fountains of religion. In a council convened in Constantinople, by the emperor Mauri- cius, A. D. 588, John, bishop of that see, claimed the title of ecu- menical or universal bishop. This had been conceded to the pat- riarchs of Constantinople, by the emperors Leo and Justinian. The circumstances, however, under which it was now assumed, excited the anger of Pelagius, the Roman pontiff; and he expressed his indignation by a remonstrance which he submitted to the emperor. This measure, however, was not accompanied with success; neither the emperor, nor the patriarch of Constantinople, admitted his pre- tensions; and this led to renewed dissensions in the Church. Although the servile minions of the papal court applied to the supreme pontiff, the title of " Vicegerent of the Most High," and elevated him to a throne above all earthly potentates, believing him to he judge in the placn of God; it is certain, that the emperors and princes of this age paid little regard to his pretensions to spir- 102 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [Gth century, itual sovereignty, and restrained him in the exercise of his official powers, by the civil laws of the kingdom and the authority of the throne. The Gothic princes who wielded the sceptre over Wes- tern Europe, exercised the right of determining the validity of every election to fill the vacant see. Their approbation was indispensable to the elevation of every aspiring candidate for that sacred office. " They enacted spiritual laws, called the religious orders before their tribunals, and summoned councils by their legal authority.'* The political sovereign of the State virtually nominated the eccle- siastical head of the Church, and determined by his arbitrary will who should be the successor to the pretended apostolic chair. The appointment to this succession had the semblance only of a clerical act, as all the proceedings were under the control of the crown, and to this authority the Church submitted without a murmur. The chair of St. Peter was the highest object of the ambition of the clergy, and the recurrence of a vacancy produced the most animated contests, and frequently civil war and bloodshed ; each aspirant resorting to the expedients of fraud, bribery, or force, to ensure his success. In the year 498, the death of Anastasius II., was followed by scenes of the most revolting character in the city of Rome. Symmachus and Laurentius were both elected to the succession. Although the apostles Peter and Paul, were at the same time bishops of Rome, as the papal writers have informed us, laboring faithfully and harmoniously in the cause of Christ and in the building up of his Church ; the successors of those holy and devout Christians and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, assumed, each for himself, the apostolic charge of the Church ; and claimed the right of an undivided and undisputed possession of the wiiole see. They alledged against each other, with unquestionable evi- dences of truth, crimes of the most nefarious character; and fully succeeded in producing in the public mind a thorough conviction, that they had both been guilty of the most diabolical acts of wick- edness. Three several ecclesiastical councils in Rome had con- vened ; but through the intrigues and machinations of the parties their deliberations were terminated without a decision of the con- troversy. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who had recently obtained possession of the throne of Italy, liaving been gained over to the party of Symmachus, summoned a fourth council in the be- ginning of this century, and by his authority, Symmachus was de- clared to be the rightful successor, and his adversary Laurentius branded with the epithet of anti-pope and banished. The writers who have transmitted accounts of these proceedings, have repre- sented this schism in the Church as one of a most odious character, and as marked by the most flagitious crimes; by assassinations and massacres, committed by both parties, perfectly regardless of the restraints of the law. 6th century.] the church of christ. 103 During these continued struggles for supremacy between the pat- riarch of the East and the pontillof the West, the frequent con- tests for the papal chair, and the advancing pretensions of the sub- ordinate bishops, Christianity became more corrupted; vice and profligacy pervaded all orders of the clergy, Tlie opprobrious title of "an assembly of robbers," imputed to the council of Ephe- sus in the last century, might very properly be attached to almost all of the councils of the Church in this and the succeeding centu- ries, agreeably to the concurrent voices of the most faithful histo- rians of those periods. Their deliberations were governed by cor- rupt influences; and their decisions were seldom marked by wis- dom, and a devotion to the prosperity and true interests of the Christian Church. In this century, temples were erected in honor of the departed saints ; and were numerous in the East as well as in the West. A superstitious belief prevailed, that not only cities but provinces were under the peculiar guardianship of those who were thus honored and revered. Festivals were instituted in commemoration of their piety. These were for the most part founded on pagan rites; as the festival of the purification of the blessed Virgin Mary, which was substituted for the Lupercalia or feasts of Pan, to gratiiy the wishes of the pagan converts. The devout worshipper of these tutelary deities satisfied his conscience and convinced his credulity, by an expression in the Apocalypse, that "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." Jerome has said, " If the Lamb is everywhere, these who are with the Lamb must also be everywhere." Litanies were addressed to them ; and they be- came the objects of devout adoration. Thus was established a system of polytheism, as wicked and as absurd as the mythology of the ancients. Purgatory was more distinctly defined, and the doctrine of its fiery ordeal impressed more strongly upon the public mind. Lac- tanlius somewhat obscurely taught, that " The souls of men, after this life, are all shut up together in one common prison, where they are to continue until the day of judgment." Hilary more clearly adirmed, that "At the last day we are to endure an indefiitigable fire; when we are to undergo those grievous torments for the ex- piation of our sins and purifying our souls." Ambrose also believed, that " It is necessary that all who desire to return into paradise should be proved by this fire." Augustine intimated, that " The souls of men departed are shut into he knew not what secret dark receptacle, where they are to remain from the hour of their de- parture until the resurrection." ^ What those infallible fathers had faintly shadowed forth in their gloomy imaginations, assumed in this age, " a local habitation and a name." 'Daille, on the Fathers. 104 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [6th century. At the close of this century, Gregory the Great, " who, as a writer observes, had a marvellous fecundity of genius in inventing, and an irresistible force of eloquence in recommending superstitious observances," determined the true locality and defined by metes and bounds, the '•'■ ahdilis receptaadis'''' of Augustine; and is un- doubtedly entitled to the credit of having first ascertained the true character of those hitherto unexplored and mysterious regions of the dead. In the lowest abyss lies the apartment of the damned, who are there consigned to endless and irremediable woes. Above this burns the purifying fire, into which are cast the souls of those who die in grace; that they may be thoroughly purged and pre- pared for heaven ; but whose torments may be alleviated by the suffrages of the faithful in this life. Prayers, alms and masses, and other works of piety, such as indulgences, are efficacious in miti- gating their torments, and securing for them a safe and early pass- port to heaven. The " limhus infantum^'''' of lighter specific grav- ity, floats above the regions of purgatory, and forms the receptacle of infants; who have not tasted the exorcised salt; whose nose and ears, have not been anointed with spittle; whose forehead, eyes and breast, have not been crossed ; upon the top of whose head the holy chrism has not been rubbed ; and into whose face the priest has never blown the sign of the cross. Into this ethereal fire the unbap- tized infant must first be plunged, before its sinless soul is received up into the mansions of bliss. Above these, lies the unoccupied ex- panse of the " limbus patriim;'''' where the souls of the patriarchs, prophets, and other holy men, performed their expurgations before the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ; who, descending into hell, before his resurrection from the dead, released them from their imprisonment and translated them to heaven. But from the blessed abodes of purgatory and the limbus infan- tum^ contumaceous and unbelieving heretics are forever excluded. Their habitation is with the damned in the lowest abyss of hell. " Whosoever shall say, that there is no debt of temporal punish- ment to be paid in purgatory, is accursed." " Whosoever shall say, the sacrifice of the mass is not to be used for the dead, is ac- cursed." " He who acknowledges not the authority of the pope, and who submits not implicitly to the decrees and doctrines of the papal church, the same shall be accursed." Such is the language of popery. A new source of revenue to the Church was obtained by grant- ing to the liberal benefactors of the clergy a remission of sins. The rich endowments bestowed on the monasteries, and costly offerings placed upon the altars, procured for the pious donors the interces- sion of the saints in heaven, and a sure acceptance with God. This was an age prolific of ecclesiastical orders. These by their im- mense wealth, and their unbounded influence over the superstition and ignorance of the people, were the strong pillars of the papal 6th century.] the church of christ. 105 throne. The monks multiplied in numbers in every part of Europe, and infested society like swarms of locusts; and with an influence more dreadful than the plagues of Egypt, they covered the whole land, devouring the substance of the deluded victims of their priest- craft and frauds, and corrupting the morals of the community. The Roman pontiffs and the patriarchs of the East, patronized and en- couraged these religious associations as instruments of their ambi- tion and rapacity. Thus may the clergy of this age be said to have improved on the artful devices and tlie wickedness of their prede- cessors, With their accession of wealth and power, vice and pro- fligacy increased. The truly pious and the reflective of all classes beheld with sorrow and in despondency this downward tendency of society. The evil was manifest to all, but it sprang from the very fountains which should have poured forth the streams of purity and virtue; and there was no moral powder which could arrest it. In the history of the precedmg century, the infallible church presented the mortifying spectacle of an assembly of bishops at Jerusalem, a council of bishops at Diospolis, and the sovereign pontiff Zosimus, declaring the doctrines of Pelagius, orthodox and sound in the faith ; and the councils in Gaul, Britain, and Africa, and an ecumenical council at Ephesus, pronouncing them heretical, and condemning them with unmitigated severity; and more, the in- fallible head of that church reversing his own solemn judicatum, and relentlessly persecuting those whom he had protected. It might properly be remarked here, that the emperors condemned those doctrines by their edicts; and on a vital question of scriptural faith were unquestionably moi"e orthodox, if not less fallible, tlian the head of the church, the legitimate successor to the apostolic throne. The doctrines of Origen, introduced in the third century, al- though at the time condemned as fanciful and involved in mysti- cism, were occasionally revived; but were particularly cherished by the monks. In the East, during the present century, new advo- cates appeared in defense of Origenism, and many of the bishops of the Eastern churches ojjenly sustained it. At a general council assembled in Constantinople, A. D. 553, ^ by the authority of Jus- tinian, the errors of Origen were condemned. This however did not terminate the controversy. Eutyches had maintained, that the human nature in Christ w^as absorbed by the divine, after him arose another sect, known as the Monophysites, who affirmed, that " The two natures were so inti- 'From tho writings of Origen, the following doctrines have been extracted ; and were condemned by this council, "In the Trinity, the Father is greater than the Son, and tiie Son than the Holy Ghost. The soul of Christ was united to the Word befoie the incarnation. Tho celestial bodies are animated and endowed with rational souls. As Christ was crucified in this world to save n-.ankind, he will be crucified in the next to save the devils. The sonls of men have a yirc-existence, and are placed in mortal bodies ;is a punishment for sins then committed. After the resurrection all bodies will be of a round fiiruro." 106 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [6th ceiitury. mately united as to form one, yet without any confusion, change, or mixture of the two," which mysterious union they explained by saying, that " In Christ tliere is one nature, but that nature is two- fold and compounded !" Such were the minute shades of ditlerence between these two sects. Both originated in the last century. When in this, the controversy on the revived doctiines of Origen arose, Theodore, bishop of Csesarea, a zealous Origenist, with a view of diverting the emperor Justinian, from the prosecution of decisive measures against his party, persuaded him tliat the Mono- physites, to whom tlie emperor was also strongly opposed, might be reconciled to the Church, if the acts of the council of Chalce- don, which declared orthodox wliat are technically called " The Three Chapters," ^ were annulled, and the writings of the authors of those chapters which countenanced the doctrines of Nestorius, were also condemned and prohibited. This artful device of the Caesarean bishop succeeded; and Justinian published an edict in the year 544, condemning those writfngs and ordering the erasure of " the three chapters" from the canons of that council. As the shrewd and perspicacious bishop had foreseen, this edict excited an animated controversy in the Church, and was particularly op- posed by Vigilius, the Roman pontiff. In obedience to the emperor, however, he convened a council of seventy bishops, and in con- formity with their decree, he issued an edict formally condemning " the three chapters." This measure of the Roman pontitf was highly otfensive to the bishops of Africa and Illyricum, and from their strenuous opposition to this sentence of condemnation against the chapters,- Vigilius was compelled to recall his edict, and to cancel the proceedings of his council. The emperor, resolved upon the accomplishment of his purpose, issued anotlier edict, A. D. 551, confirming the former, and summoned the pontilf to appear at the imperial court in Constantinople. Fie obeyed the imperial order, and there assented to the measures of Justinian. With a view of determining this contest by ecclesiastical author- ity, the emperor convened an ecumenical council at Constantinople in 553; which formally decreed, that "The doctrines of Oiigen, and those contained in ' the three chapters,' were heretical and per- nicious." Vigilius, intimidated by the decided measures and the threatening language of the African and Illyrican bishops, refused liis assent to tl)e decrees of the council. For his contumacy, he was treated ' "The ttirce chapters" were the productions of Tlicodore, of Mopsiiestia ; Tlieo- dorct, of Cyrus; and Ibas, of Edessa. These writings favored tlie Ncstoiian doc- trines. Tlie council of Ciialccdon tiad, nothwithslanding, declared tlicm orthodox. The council of (Constantinople, |)ronouncod Ihein iicretical and pernicious. Such was the infiUibility of these ecclesiastical jiidicalorips. 'Those bishops withdrew from their coinnumion with the Western churches, and declared Vigilius an apostate. They refused to acknowledge his autiiority, or to re- unite with the churches in the West, until lie repealed his edict. 6th century.] the church of christ. 107 with many personal indignities and banished. Nor was the sentence of his exile withdrawn until he yielded to the emperor the whole ground of controversy. For the fourth time he changed his religi- ous creed; and by a formal edict he pronounced the doctrines of "the three chapters," "execrable blasphemies." Notwithstanding the indisputable authority conceded by the pa- pal church to the ecumenical councils, and a true and loyal papist swears to profess and to receive as an article of his faith, whatever has been delivered, defined, and declared, by 'the sacred canons and ecumenical councils of the Church, many of the Western bishops refused to yield their opinions, and to render obedience to the can- ons of this fifth general council ; and some of them withdrew from their communion with the Romish church; for not only Vigilius, but all the pontiffs who have since occupied the chair of St. Peter, have uniformly acknowledged the authority of this council. This schism appears never to have been healed. THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. The world was rapidly approaching that period in its history, which is called the " Dark Age.'''' Few institutions for the cultiva- tion of letters now existed, and a superstitious prejudice against the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans, generally prevailed. Gregory the Great, at the close of this century, is said to have de- stroyed with his own hands, many of those monuments of genius and learning, and to have caused the Capitoline Library in Rome to be burned. Almost the only traces handed down to us of the literary productions of the age, are those of a theological charac- ter. Marius, bishop of Avranches, Menander, Justinian, and a few others, are honorable exceptions. Bound down as the age appears to have been, in the fetters of superstition and bigotry, it cannot be a matter of surprise, that there was scarcely an evidence of that progress in religious reformation which had been made in the pre- ceding centuries. We are not, how^ever, to suppose that those oc- casional and glimmering lights which had appeared above the hori- zon were extinguished. They were indeed, almost entirely ob- Ao system of the most rapacious exactions. Before this innovation, the clergy, their persons as well as their property, had been exempt from all taxation ; fiom the su[)posed sacredness of their character, and a superstitious fear of commit- ting sacrilege by demanding from the ecclesiastical order, pecuniary contributions for temporal purposes. The bishops did not hesitate to reproach the pontiffs witlv venality and avarice, hut this sacer- dotal contest terminated in their defeat. " The church is one body," said Boniface, " and has one head. Under its command are two swords, the one temporal, and the other spiritual." ' " Jiir.Trncrituin contra ulilitatem ecclesiasticam prBesliliim iion tenet." This has been applied to the conduct of the Church witli regiird to lieretics. 13th century.] the church of christ. 213 The institution of a new rite points out another innovation in the Church, at the close of this centuiy. The jubilee, in imitation of the Ludi saeculares^ was (irst celebrated, under an epistolary man- date by Boiiilace, in 1299. The celebration commenced in the be- ginning- of the year 1300. During the secular games of the pagan Romans, sacrihces were offered as well to the infermd as the celes- tial gods. Religious solemnities were observed, which were fol- lowed by various exhibitions, to amuse the populace. Preparatory to the celebration of this festival, the Sibylline books were consult- ed, and certam expiatory rites were observed. But in the pom- pous display of wealth, in the licentiousness and debaucheries which prevailed in the city, and in the disorder and the crimes which attended the Christian jubilees, papal Rome far surpassed the iMetntpolis of the ancient Roman empire. Plenary indulgences were promised to all pilgrims who would, in the course of the year, visit the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul. " The pope," says a writer,' " received from these, immense sums of money ; lor in the night as well as in the day, two priests stood at the altar of St. Paul, holding I'akes in their hands, raking in an incalculable amount." (Injlnitam et iiinumerabilem pecwiiam.) This was intended as a centenary festival ; but as it proved a source of immense wealth to the popes, the periods were subsequently shortened to twenty- five years. Whilst we are thus taking a superficial survey of the power, wealth, and grandeur of the Romish hieiarchy, we must not over- look tiie cheering fact, that in the bosom of the Cliuich, the seeds of contention were germinnling. It is a remarkable circumstance, and shows the merciful providence of God, that at the period when we may date the mei'ulian glory of tliis colossal power, we perceive the incipient operation of those principles which weakened its ener- gies, and prepared the minds of the people for the consummation of that great Reformation, which had been slowly advancing since the middle of the third century. In the contests between the pontiffs and the bishops, on tlie free- dom of election to vacant sees, and the right of collation, or pre- sentation to ecclesiastical benefices, the abuses of the Church (of which the highest order of the clergy were now made sensible,) were freely canvassed, and angrily protested against. The con- troversy which commenced with the bishops, whose ecclesiastical prerojjatives and pecuniary emoluments wei'e thus unexpectedly in- vaded, was extended to the princes ; and the peo|de themselves be- came disaffected tou-ardsa spiritual authority which they had look- ed up to, with superstitious veneration and awe. Tlic l)lshop of I^incoln, Robert Gi-osst(;te, took a distinguished part in this controversy ; and resisted the usurpation of the popes 'llallam's Middle Asrcs. 214 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, [loth ccntury. with so much zeal and firmness of spirit, that he has been enrolled by some writers as one of the precursors of the Reformation. — Louis IX. of France, although a bigot to the Romish superstitions, and a servile insti'ument of the pope, was at length aroused by the increasing danger of the papal encroachments, and by an edict, protected the Gallican church in its ancient and acknowledged rights. " The itinerant minstrels invented tales to satirize vicious priests, which a predisposed multitude eagerly swallowed." But another influence sprung up in tlie two religious orders which were considered the firmest pillars of popery. 'I'he dissen- sions between the Franciscans and the Dominicans, distracted the councils of the church, weakened in the minds of the people their habitual prejudices in its favor, and produced a general impression that a renovation of its entire structure had become necessary. These orders were not only in a state of avowed enmity towards each other ; but differences arose among themselves, in their re- spective fraternities, and each order was divided into distinct and separate branches. " Whoever," says Mosheim, "considers with attention the series of events that happened in the Latin church, from this remarkable period, will be fully convinced that the men- dicant orders, whether through im[)rudence or design, we shall not determine, gave several mortal blows to the authority of the church of Rome, and excited in the minds of the people, those ardent de- sires of a reformation in the church, which pioduced, in after times, such substantial and such glorious effects." The several monastic orders which existed in the beginning of this century, particularly the society of Benedictines, had sunk into the lowest state of depravity and vice. Withdrawn from the con- trol of the bishops, who were however generally not less tempor- al minded and sensual, than the monks themselves; they gave a loose rein to the indulgence of every base appetite. Those insti- tutions had long lost their religious character, and with it, that in- fluence which they had formerly exercised over the superstitious feelings of the multitude. The contrast between the strict virtues and pious deportment of the dissenters from the Church, or the heretics, as they were reproachfully called, and the vices of the Romish clergy, was apparent to all. The unreasonable pretensions and profligacy of the pontiffs had called forth the severe animad- versions of the whole Christian world. It was manifest that the affairs of the Church had arrived at a crisis. To maintain its con- trol over the public mind, now becoming enlightened by the gener- al diffusion of knowledge, a change in the immoralities of tlie ec- clesiastics was imperatively demanded. It was with this view that the Dominican and Franciscan orders were instituted. To the sa- gacity of Innocent III. must be imputed the first suggestion of such organizations. By their strict discipline, and rcMunciiiilon of all worldly possessions, they were designed to rescue the moral char- 13th century.] the church of christ. 215 acter of the Chuicli from public opprobrium. AlV traits of its re- lii^ious character had long before been obhterated. The pontilfs, therefore, of this century, as safeguards to the papal throne, re- modeled the monasiic orders; diminishing their number, and ex- teiiding their pationage to such as they deemed best calculated to accomplish the desired end. The Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Hermits of St. Augustine, were favored with peculiar distinctions and exclusive privileges. The pontilfs encour- aged the belief of their extraordinary sanctity. Their intluence became paramount; and even in the administration of the rites of the Church, the ordinary priests found their customary vocations intruded upon by those sanctimonious mendicants. But these des- perate eiforts to strengthen the throne were not attended with the ha[)py results anticipated. God had said, " I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon ; and her whole land shall be confounded, for she hath caused the slain of Israel to fall." The papal machinery was ingeniously contrived and artfully con- structed ; but the arm which had raised it up, was unable to direct and govern its movements. A contest soon arose between the Do- minicans and Franciscans on the one hand, and the doctors of the Sorbonne on the other. The order of Alexander IV. to confer on the Dominicans as many professorships in the academy, as they de- manded, and to concede to the Franciscans also, certain academi- cal rights which they had claimed in that theological institution, ex- cited to the highest degree, the doctors of the Sorbonne. St. Amour, one of their most learned divines, attacked the Dominicans with unsparing severity. In his " Perils of the latter times," " he maintained publicly, that their discipline was in direct opposition to the precepts of the gospel ; and that in confirming it, the popes had been guilty of temerity, and the Church had become chargea- ble with error." He applied to the four mendicant orders, the prophecy of Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy, " that in the last days perilous times shall come," &c. &c. But the evil did not stop here. Dissensions arose among the Franciscans themselves. Joachim, abbot of Flora, in Calabria, had published a work entitled, " The Everlasting Gospel." In this, "he foretold the destruction of the church of Rome, whose corruptions he censured with the greatest severity ; and the pro- mulgation of a new and more perfect gospel in the age of the Ho- ly Ghost, by a set of poor and austere ministers, whom God would raise up and employ for that purpose."' The Spirituals, as tlie austere Franciscans were called, to distinguish them from those of that order who were sensually dis[)Osed, believed that they were the instruments of Divine Providence for the fulfillment of this pro- 'Mosheim''s Ecclesiastical History. 216 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [13th centuiy. phecy. This division in tfie fraternity occasioned a serious injury to the Romish cliurch. Accompanying these movements was the attack of Jean Pierre d'Olive, the leader of the Spirituals, on the corruptions of the pa- pal church; maintaining-, that it is represented in the Apocalypse by "tlie whore of Babylon, the mother of harlots, silting upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." In this century appeared the works of the poet Dante. 1 As an evidence of the general impression which seems at this time to have prevailed, with respect to the true char- acter of that church, we find in his poem the same delineation giv- en to it. In his 19lh canto, of his vision in hell, he addresses him- self to Pope Nicholas III. whom he meets with in the third gulf, in the following words : " Of shepherds hke to you, th' Evangelist Was ware, when lier, who sits upon the waves, With iiings in filthy whoredom he beheld; Slie vvlio wilii seven heads tower'd at her birth, And from ten horns her proof of glory drew, Long as hei spon e in virtue took dehght, Of gold and silver ye have made your god, Ditf'riiig wherein from the idolater. But that he worships one — a liundred ye." The Fratricelli, otherwise called, Beguards^ or Fratres JMinores'^ were a branch of the Spirituals, and like the others alledged open charges agamst the popes and bishops, of immoralities and vices; and predicted that a reformation of religion would be brought about by the true followers of St. Francis. They revered the memory of Celestine V., but refused to acknowledge Boniface VIII. and his successors, as the legitimate heads of the Church. Thus were the religious orders, which tlic popes had flattered themselves, would be the strong pillars of popery, made instru- ments, by the providence of God, of those reforms which they were the most solicitous to avert. We will now resume the histoiy of the Reformation. THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. The church established by Columba, in the sixth century, among the Picts in Scotland, preserved its distinctive char;icter until the close of the eleventh century. In the reign of Malcolm HI., sur- named Canmore, from the largeness of his head, the Culdees were either persuaded or compelled to adopt many of the superstitious rites of the Romish church. This change was effected through the influence of the queen, Margaret, an Anglo Saxon princess. 'Age of Danto, from 1265 to 1321. "Tlie term Fratricolli, having become odious to tlie papists by llie reproach c&sl upon the Churcb by this branch of I he Francisciins, was indiscriminately applied to tlie VValdenses, and to all who reviled the Church on account of its vice^- 13th century.] the church of christ. 217 Educated on the continent, and accustomed to the pomp and gor- geous ceremonies of the papal worship, the simple forms of the Culdees were offensive to her retined ideas ; and her zealous labors were directed to the extirpation of what seemed to iier the last traces of a barbarous age. Her etforts were accompanied with success; and her name has been enrolled in the catalogue of saints. Many of the Culdee churches, however, retained their ancient forms, and it was not until the beginning of this century, that the last traces of them are to be discerned. Some writers, indeed, be- lieve that vestiges of the ancient religious institutions of Columba, were unoblileraled as late as the beginning of the sixteenth cen- tury. The pure religion of the gospel was preserved in the moun- tains of the Alps; and there are evidences of its preservation among the Picts, at a period when an idolatrous worship prevailed in all the states and provmces of Europe and Asia, which had been brought under the jurisdiction of the Latin and Greek churches. " VVhen the papists ask us," says a distinguished writer,' '■'■ where our religion was before Luther.-' we may answer. In the Bible; and we answer well. But to gratify their taste for tradition and human authority, we may add. In the valleys of Piedmont and on the mountains of Scotland." It has been mentioned that the Piedmont is now the principal province of the continental states of the king of Sardinia ; and that it was formerly under the government of tlie dukes of Savoy. Af- ter the extinction of the kingdom of Burgundy, in the year 561, Savoy, which had been one of its provinces, was transferred to the government of France, and was an appendage to that kingdom un- til 888; when it was annexed to what was called Transjurane Bur- gundy, which in the year 933, was blended with the kingdom of Arclat, or Arcles. By the annexation of Arcles afterward, to Ger- many, Savoy became a province of the German empire, and its different parts were governed by counts appointed by the emper- ors. The earldom, however, became hereditary in the beginning of the eleventh century. Piedmont constituted a part of its do- mains. After the death of Bonifacius Roland, the ninth hereditary count of Savoy, in 1263; his uncle, Philip, arch-bishop of Lyons, succeeded to the earldom, in prejudice of the children of his elder brother, Thomas. Piedmont became then, a distinct principality, under the government of the descendants of Thomas, who received the title of^ princes or counts. When in 1418 this branch of the house of Savoy, became extinct by the death of Lewis, it was again annexed to Savoy in the person of Amadicus VIII., who had been elevated the preceding year to the rank of duke, by the em- peror Sigismund. Amadaius was elected pope in 1440, by the council of Basil, and assumed the name of Felix V. In conse- 'Mr. Gavin's Protestant. 218 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [1 3th century. quence of the dissensions which then prevailed in the Church, on tlie question of the succession to tl>e papal chair, he relinquished his claim in 1449. After his death, in the year 1451, his son Louis,^ succeeded to the duchy of Savoy. It may be here mentioned, that the eldest son of tlie reig-niiig duke was distinguished by the title of " Prince of Piedmont." In 1535, the reigning dulvc, Charles III., surnamed the Good,' was dispossessed of nearly all of his do- minions by Francis I., kiiig of France, his nephew; but on the ac- cession of his son Esnanuel Philibert, who married Margaret, the daughter of Francis, the integrity of the duchy was restored. Languedoc, in the beginning of this century was under the gov- ernment of the counts or earls of Toulouse, but was annexed to France in 1229. Provence was annexed in 1272; and Dauphine in the year 1349. With these historical facts in view, many of which have been mentioned in anticipation of their proper dates, the narration of the events in the progress of the Reformation of this, and the succeed- ing century will be better understood. Philip II., surnamed Augustus, was the reigning sovereign of France, in the beginning of this century. Frederick II. occupied the imperial throne, and Innocent III. was the reigning pontilf. "In the year 1163, during the pontificate of Alexander III., at the Synod of Tours, all the bishops and priests in the country of Toulouse, (Languedoc,) were commanded to take care, and to for- bid, under the pain of excommunication, every person from pre- suming to give reception, or the least assistance to the followers of this heresy, (of the Waldenses and Albigenses,) neither were they to have any dealings with them in buying or selling. Whoever shall dare to contravene this order, let him be excommunicated. — As many of them as can be founrl, let them be imprisoned by the (papal) princes, and punished with the forfeiture of all iheir sub- stance." Lucius III , the successor of Alexander, in the year 1 181, issued a decree " breathing out threatnings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord." Its language was, " To abolish the malignity of diverse heresies, which are lately sprung up in most parts of the world, it is hut fitting that the power committed to the Church should be awakened, that, by tiie concurring assistance of the imperial streiigth, both tlie insolence and the malpertness of the berclics, in their false designs, may be crushed, and the truth of Catholic simplicity shining forth in the holy Church, may demon- strate her, pure and free from the execrableness of their false doc- trines." The decree denounces all those dissenting from the Ro- mish church, and declares them to be under a perpetual anathema. A curse which has never been withdrawn; which now hangs over 'Tim famous " Louisa of Savoy," who made fo ronspicnoiis a fig'iire in tlic French court, in the sixteenth century, wiis the sister of ('l)arles, and the mother of Francis, and Margaret who embraced the principles of tlic Reformation. 13th century.] the church op christ. 219 every Protestant; and only suspended, from the want of power to enforce it by the gibbet and the flames. It then proceeds, " If any layman shall be found guilty, either publicly or privately, of any of the aforesaid crimes, (tliat is, preaching or speaking improperly of the sacraments,) unless by abjuring his heresy, and makmg satisfac- tion, he immediately return to the orthodox faith, we decree him to be left to the sentence of the secular judge, to receive condign pun- ishment, according to the quality of the offense." In the pontifi- cate of Celestine III., Ildefonsus, king of Arragon, at the instiga- tion of [lis ghostly father, ordained, that "All heretics," found in his dominions, ''be condemned and persecuted every where; and all persons present at their pernicious sermons, be punished, as if they were actually guilty of higii treason." Thus vvere the popes successively urging upon the princes of Europe to exterminate with fire and sword, their quiet and peaceful subjects, whose only of- fense was, that they worshipped God agreeably to the dictates of their consciences, and refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the Romish hierachy. The cruelties inflicted upon those innocent and inoffensive sectaries in the twelfth century, were but the begin- nings of sorrows. Truly was fulfilled in them the prediction of our Savior, that his disciples should be delivered up to councils; that they shall be brought before rulers and kings for his sake, and shall be hated of all men for his name's sake. Innocent III. having in 1206, commissioned Rainier and Castel- nau to visit the southern provinces of France, with full powers to inquire into, and to suppress all heresies which might be discover- ed, in the following year called upon the princes of Europe to as- sist in the extermination of these recusant and contumacious secta- ries. '"Tis the command of God," said his holiness, "If thou shalt hear say in any one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying. Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known, thou shalt smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword." Caslelnau, in the execution of his inquisitorial powers, had in- flicted upon those suspected or accused of heresy, the most barba- rous cruelties. So great was the popular indignation, that he, with his assistant inquisitor, were massacred by an incensed populace in Languedoc, This occurrence excited the highest indignation of Innocent. Raymond VI., earl of Toulouse, within whose territo- ries (he legate had been killed, was excommunicated with the most denunciatory anathemas. Raymond had incurred the vengeance of his ghostly father, by refusing to persecute the hercti(;s within his dominions, and had even dared to extend to them, his protection. " If we could open your heart," said Innocent, in a let'er address- ed him, " we should find, and would point out to you, the detesta- ble abominations tliat you have committed ; but as it is harder than the rock, it is in vain to strike it with the words of salvation ; we 220 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [13tl) ccntuiy. cannot penetrate it Pestilential man ! what pride has seized your heart, and what is your folly, to refuse peace with your neighbors, and to brave the divine laws, by protecting the enemies of the faith? If you do not fear eternal flames, ought you nol to dread the temporal chastisements which you have merited by so many crimes ?" The territories of Raymond were put under an interdict ; and the whole of Christendom was called on to avenge the cause of Christ and his Church. The princes and nobles were invited to engage in this holy war against the enemies of the cross. Abbots and priests traversed the whole of Europe, preaciiing a crusade against the Albigcnses. Paradise and a plenary indulgence \vere liberally offered to all who would enlist under the banner of the cross, and serve forty days in the work of extermination. After declaring that faith must not be kept with those who do not keep faith with God. Innocent thus addressed the princes : " We ex- hort you, tliat you would endeavor to destroy the wicked heresy of the Aibigenses, and do this with more rigor than you would to- wards the Saracens themselves; persecute them with a stiong hand ; deprive them of their lands and possessions; banish them, and put Catholics in their room." The utmost extent of indul- gence was therefore, promised to the crusaders, which had ever been extended to those who had fought for the deliverance of the Holy Land. The king of France zealously engaged in the expedition, but ap- prehensive that his own kingdom might be invaded by the English during his absence from his capital, the pope, to avert this danger, and to quiet liis apprehension, addressed a letter to the English monarch in the following language: "Make no war, either by yourself, or your brother, or any other person, on the said Icing, (of France) so long as he is engaged in the affiiir of the faith and service of Jesus Christ, lest by your obstructing the matter, which God forbid you should do, the king, with his prelates and barons of France, should be forced to turn their arms, from the extirpa- tion of heretics, to their own defense." " Who will rise up for me against the evil doers .^ or, who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity.''" One humlred thousand men, with each a cross u|)on his breast, rallied under the standards of tlieir leaders, from every quarter of Christendom. Ar- nold, abbot of Cisteaux, assumed the spiritual charge of this im- mense army, who were about to invade a harmless and inoffensive people, and to exterminate them by the authority of the pope, for no other reason than that they persisted in reading the word of God, and in worshipping him as that Word directed. Simon, earl of Montford, of the bastard race of Robert, king of France, was appointed the commander-in-chief of the crusaders. Whilst the preparations for this dreadful expedition were re- J3lh century.] the chuhch of christ. 221 sounding throughout Europe, and were hastened with the inipetu- osity of fanatical zeal, the pope's emissaries were sent into Lan- guedoc, to quiet the fears of the Albigenses, and by false promises of leniency and forbearance on the part of the Church, to lull their vigilance. Under the pretext of negouiating peace, tfiese devoted victims were invited to hold a conference at Carcassone with the popish bishops. Nothing, said the court of Rome, would be more satisfactory to the holy mother church, than to arrest the arn^of the executioners, and prevent the effusion of blood. Such was the duplicity and cold blooded treachery of Innocent. In the meantime, the forces were organized, the standards were unfurled, and the knights and barons, at the head of their vassals, commenced the work of desolation. Smoking towns and villages and the bleeding bodies of their unhappy victims, marked the pro- gress of their invasion. In the year 1209, about the middle of the month of July, Montfort appeared with his immense host before the gates of Bezieres. Raymond, aware of the impossibility of defending the city, supplicated Arnold, the pope's legate, to spare the innocent. " You must defend yourselves," replied Arnold, "for no mercy can be shown; abjuration of your faith, or the sword, are your only alternatives." " We will lose our lives," said the besieged, " before we abjure our faith. The pope can destroy our bodies; but we will not deny Him, who has power to destroy both soul and body in hell. Our faith is in Christ and his righte- ousness." Bezieres was taken by the besiegers. The leaders wished to spare the papists who were witliin its walls. " How shall we dis- tinguish our friends from our enemies.''" asked the barons and knights, " Destroy them all," said the .pope's legate, " the Lord will know his own." The gntes were forced open; and one hun- dred thousand bloody murderers, with the cross upon their breasts, and the draw^i sword in their h:inds, poured through their narrow passages, and commenced an indiscriminate slaughter of the inhab- itants. As aU'ful, and even as incredible as the narration of these bloody transactions appears to be, we are assured by the most un- doubted testimony, that not a living soul escaped. Seven thousand dead bodies were counted in one of the churches. The streets were strew^ed with the slain, and every dwelling exhibited the same scene of desolation. Sixty tlionsand persons of all ages and sexes, were thus put to the sword. The torch was applied to the build- ings ; and the whole city wns consumed to ashes. Raymond had retreated from Bezieres before its capture; and fortified himself in the strong battlements of Carcassone. Thither the victorious army marched w\\.\\ an increased forcte of three hundred thou'^and men. Some authorities have estimated the number at five hundred thousand. 222 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [13th century. Raymond was himself, a papist ; hut he defended to the last ex- tremity, his subjects of a dilierent faith ; who, he assured the legate, never did wrong intenlionally to any one, and from their fidelity to him, he was resolved never to desert them. These noble senti- ments but excited the relentless ferocity of Arnold. Raymond well knew, from the recent fate of Bezieres, that nothing could be expected fiom the mercy of the besiegers. "He therelore, urged th^ inhabitants to defend themselves like men, and to recollect, that both their lives and the fiee exercise of their religion was at stake; pledging himself that he would never forsake them in so honorable a cause, as was that of defending themselves against their common enemies, who, under the mask of dissembled piety, were in efl'ect nothing better than thieves and robbers." Encouraged by these cheering assurances, the besieged defended themselves with a resolute spirit. The suburbs of the city were reduced to ashes, and all of the inhabitants indiscriminately slaugh- tered. But in the attempts to subdue the fortress, thousands of the crusaders were destroyed. The ground was covered, and the ditches were filled with their dead bodies. But successful resist- ance to the end was evidently impossible. The legate was per- suaded by the king of Arragon, to propose to the earl of Toulouse terms of capitulation. Fearful of disregarding the suggestions of the king, but resolved at the same time not to permit his victims to escape his grasp, he oifered to the earl such conditions as he could not suppose would have been acceded to; conditions truly charac- teristic of a representative of Innocent. " That the earl iiimself, and twelve others with their baggage, might leave the city unmo- lested. That the inhabitants, men, women, maidens, and children, should come out without so much as their shirts or shifts on, or the smallest covering to hide their nakedness." These conditions of surrender were peieinptorily rejected by Raymond. Baffled in all his attempts to reduce the fortifications by force, and thirsting for the blood of his devoted victims, Arnold lesorted to a stratagem. Raymond was invited to a personal interview with liim, under a sacred pledge of safe conduct back to the city. The pretended object was a negociation of peace. The plot succeeded ; and Raymond was detained as a prisoner. The information of this treachery filled the minds of the besieged with consternation, and despair. Such was their condition, when in hopeless desponden- cy, a secret subterranean passage was discovered, leading from the citadel to a distance of nine miles into the country, terminating at the castle of Caberet. Through this the inhabitants escaped ; and dispersed themselves through whatever sections they expected to receive protection. Disa|)pointed by the escape of his prey, the legate took four hundred of his prisoners, and satiated his ven- geance by committing them to ihc flames. Carcassone was taken, w ith all its W'calth, as the property of the Church. The territor- 1 3th century.] the church of christ. 223 ies of Raymond were given to the earl of Montfort. From this city the crusaders proceeded to Castres ; and having exercised tlie cruehies there, which marked their footsteps wherever they march- ed, continued their work of devastation, burning the towns and de- stroying the inhabitants. Some of tlieir prisoners were buried ahve, and others burnt. " This crusade," says Hallam, " was pros- ecuted with every atrocious barbarity wiiich superstition, the mo- ther of crimes, could inspire. Languedoc, a country for that age, flourishing and civihzed, was laid waste by these desolaters; her cities were burnt; her inhabitants swept away by fire and the sword. And this was to punish a fanaticism ten thousand times more innocent than their owmi, and errors which, according to the worst imputations, left the huvs of humanity and the peace ol' social life unimpaired." Such weve the events of the campaign of the year 120y. The earl of Montfort, in the following year, resumed his work of devastation and slaughter with an army of fresh recruits. His first act was to violate a treaty he had made in 1209, with Raymond Roger, the count of Foix; (a province of France at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains.) Fire and the sword left appalling vestiges of their progress. Cas- tles and towns were burnt; and the inhabitants who could not es- cape their pursuit, fell victims to their diabolical zeal. Lavour was burnt, and its governor, Aymerick, hung. Men and women were alike the objects of their cruelties. The sister of Aymerick, was thrown alive into a pit, and overwhelmed with rocks. Carcum submitted to thfir arms; and there sixty were put to death. Pul- chra Vallis, a flourishing city near Toulouse, was taken; and four hundred Albigenses were burnt. Castres de Termes, was seized; and Raymond de Termes, was confined in a dungeon, where he died ; his wife, sister, and a virgin daughter, were burnt at the same stake ; and many ladies of noble families shared the same fate as heretics. Having devasted the whole country as they pursued their conquests, they at length arrived at the city of Minerva, on the confines of Spain. So thoroughly reformed was this place, that it was remarked of it, that " No mass had been sung in it lor thirty years." After a siege of seven weeks, it capitulated, and surren- dered at discretion to the crusaders. Montfort having a large fire kindled, called upon the inliabilants to abjuie tlieir faith. " We have renounced the church of Rome," said these niartyi's, " and neither death nor life will make us abandon the opinions we have embraced." One hundred and eighty men and women were instant- ly thrown into the blazing jjile. " These," said the writer on the Albigensian persecutions, "died steadfast in the truth, praising God that he had counted them worthy to suffer death for the iledeem- er's sake." 224 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [13th centurj. When the castle of La Vour was taken, Montfort besought the crusaders to take the inhabitants pnsjners, that " the priests of the living God might not be deprived of iheir promised jo}s." A monkish writer of these occurrences, which he witnessed, says " 'I'he noble count (Montfoit) delivered over to the priests the in- numerable heretics that the castle contained, whom they buined alive with the utmost joy." But the heart sickens at the recital of such deeds of brutal cruel- ty. " The time conieth," said our Savior to his disciples, "that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because tliey have not known the Father, nor me." The counts of Toulouse, and of Foix, thus driven out of their cities, collected their forces, and for a time suc- cessfully opposed the progress of Montfoit; but at the battle of Muiet, near the Garonne, they were signally defeated, and their troops were routed with a dreadful slaughter. This desperate struggle of the Albigenses in 1213, seemed to be their last effort to recover their religious rights. " The slaughter had been so prodigious," says Sismondi, " the massacres so universal, the terror so profound, and of so long dura- tion, that the popish church appeared to have completely obtained her object. The worship of the reformed Albigenses had every where ceased. All teaching was become impossible. Almost all the doctors of the new church had perished miserably." The per- secution was arrested for the want of objects. The council of Lateran, in 1215, awarded to the earl of Montfort, all the territo- ries belonging to Raymond; and he received them from the hands of Innocent. The quiet wliich followed, encouraged the dispersed Albigenses to return to their former abodes. But they did not long enjoy their ancient seats unmolested. A gathering storm soon ap- prized them of their danger. "Rome was not yet drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." In the year 1218, the war of extermination commenced with re- newed vigor. Iloiiorius III., had succeeded Innocent; and in the second year of his pontificate, he published his bull of excommuni- cation against the Albigenses. "We excommunicate," said Hono- rius, "all heretics of both sexes, and of whatever sect, with their favorers, receivers and defenders, &c." The castle of Marmande, was taken in the following year. By a perfidious violation of tlie treaty of surrender, through the persuasions of the bishop of Saintes, all the inhabitants, men, women and children, amounting in number to five thousand persons were cruelly massacred. The city of Toulouse, the capital of Languedoc, was the next object of the crusader's, or pious pilgrims, as they were called by the papal wri- ters. The pope's legate made a solemn asseveration, that " In the said Toulouse should remain, neither man, woman, boy, nor girl ; all 13th century.] the church of christ. 225 should be put to death, without sparing- okl or young; and in all the city tliete should not remain one stone above another, but all should be demolished and thrown down." At the siege of this city, the earl of Montfoit was killed. The besiegers were discomfited, and were compelled to retreat with precipitation. In the year 1222, Raymond died. He was succeeded by his son, Raymond VII. Amalric, the son of Montford, inherited the territories of his father, and succeeded him in the command of the papal armies. The war was conducted by these two leaders with various and doubtful suc- cess. Louis VIIL, surnamed the Lion, ascended the throne of France in the year 1223. So that in this year there was an entire change of commanders on both sides. The war was, notwithstand- ing, carried on with unabated vigor. Raymond obtained several triumphs over Amalric; and Honorius, alarmed at the unfavorable change of events, called upon Louis, with the most tlattering pro- mises, to take up arms in defense of the Church. In willing obe- dience to this mandate, Louis, who was not less a fanatic than the abbot of Cisteaux, took up the cross, and appeared at the head of the papal forces. In June, 1226, he closed his career of victories by the capture of Avignon. On the surrender of that city, after a siege of three months, the cruelties inflicted on the inhabitants were of a similar character to the acts of barbarity, which popery has invariably displayed when triumphant over its enemies. The be- sieged had sutfered from disease and famine; and submitted to the superior force of Louis, when resistance could no longer be edec- tual. Favorable conditions were ofteied by the pope's legate; but when the gates were opened the whole army of the crusaders rushed in, contrary to the stipulations of the surrender. The miserable inhabitants, w^orn out by fatigue, and enfeebled by disease and star- vation, were bound in fetters, and large numbers of them were put to death. The city was given up to the soldiery. The walls were demolished ; and ruin and desolation pervaded its streets. Louis died not long after he had reduced both the provinces of Languedoc and Avignon ; and his son, wlio is known in history as St. Louis, succeeded to the kingdom at the age of eleven years. The Albigenses made but a i^eeble resistance after these disasters. They were from the fall of Avignon, more the objects of persecu- tion than an enemy in the field. The regency of France, during the minority of Louis IX., was intrusted to his mother, Blanche of Castile. By her address and firmness, the interests of the kingdom were ably and successfully conducted. Raymond, overwhelmed by the regal forces, and pressed on all sides, was compelled, in the year 1229, to cede to Louis, tiie greater part of Languedoc, with the reversionary right of the remainder on the failure of his des- cendants. Whilst the popish armies were thus from year to year pursuing their victories over the forces of the Albigenses, destroying their 15 226 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [13th centur}. towns and villages, the inquisitions established in Languedoc, were not less active with their instruments ot" torture and death. " Inde- pendent of those who fell by the edge of the sword, or were com- mitted to the flames by the soldiers and magistrates, the inquisition was constantly at work, from the year 1206 to 1228, and produced the most dreadful havoc among the disciples of Christ. Of the effects occasioned by this infernal engine of cruelty and oppression, we may have some notion from this circumstance, that in the last mentioned year, the arch-bishops of Aix, Aries and Narbonne, found it necessary to intercede with the monks of the inquisition, to defer a little their work of imprisonment, until the pope was ap- prised of the immense numbers apprehended, numbers so great, that it was impossible to defray the charge of their subsistence, or even to provide stone and mortar to build prisons foi them. The inquisitors were directed, as to those who are altogether impenitent and incorrigible, or concerning whom you may doubt of their re- lapse or escape, or that, being at large again, they would infect others, you may condemn such without delay." It has been estimated, from very credible data, that not less than one million of the Albigenses were sacrificed by popish cruelty during these persecutions; terminated, or rather suspended, in the year 1229. " These sectaries," says Hume, "though the most in- nocent and inoffensive of mankind, were exterminated, with all the circumstances of extreme violence and barbarity." It was against these obstinate and perverse heretics, that the council of Toulouse, in 1229, prohibited laymen from reading or publishing the sacred Scriptures. Such was the issue of this ex- terminating warfare; continued with little interm.ission for a quarter of a century. The Albigenses were overcome, by overwelming numbers, and the untiring zeal of their enemies. 'J'hey were driven out of the fair valleys of southern France ; but they were not ex- terminated. The Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Cevennes, aflbrded them a refuge from the power of Rome. Into these mountain re- cesses they retired ; and preserved their religion, and enjoyed lib- erty of conscience. They were dispersed over Europe; and even in Rome itself, in the year 1231, history informs us, numbeis were arrested and burnt. In 1232, Gregory IX., wrote to the emperor Frederick, "that the Catharines, Paterines, Poor of Lyons, and otiier heretics, formed in the school of the Albigenses, had appeared in Lombaidy and the two Sicilies." Frederick, at the solicitation of Gregory, issued an edict, commanding " Ail judges immediately to deliver to the flames every man who should be convicted of heresy by the bishop of his diocese ; and to pull out the tongues of those to whom the bishop should think it proper to show favor, that they might not corrupt others." Gregory, encouraged by the obsequiousness of Frederick, sent into Germany, Conrad of Marpurg, as his inquisitor. This was I4th century.] the church of christ. 227 the first attempt to introduce into the empire this detestable engine of papal cruelty. But such was the brutal barbarity of this repre- sentative of the successor of St. Peter, that the populace, in the fury of their anger, rose up against him and put him to death. About this time, the inquisition was introduced into Arragon, Spain. In that country, it continued to flourish for many centuries, and is probably not even at the present day entirely abolished. Throughout this century, the Romish church appears to have directed all its efforts to the suppression of the Albigensian doc- trines, and the extermination of that sect. In these it succeeded, if not effectually, so fai- as to disorganize their churches. Their pure and spiritual doctrines still lived, and were widely disseminated over Europe ; and, with those of the Vaudois in Piedmont, were the nuclei of the religious principles of the sixteenth century. Rome destroyed the body, but it had no power over the soul of the Albicfensian church. CHAPTER X. In the beginning of this century, Boniface VIII., occupied the pontifical seat. Philip IV., surnamed the Fair, was the reigning sovereign of France; and Albert I., son of Rodolph, of the house of Hapsburg, was emperor of Germany. Edward I., was the Eng- lish monarch. The century was ushered in by a warm controversy between the pope and the kings of England and of France, on the spiritual and temporal rights of the Church. The question which gave rise to this, was that of the power in the civil authority to impose taxes upon the clergy. Edward appears to have exercised this sovereign prerogative without much molestation by Boniface. The ecclesi- astics were impatient under the frequent and exorbitant subsidies which they were required to pay; and upon their refusal to com- ply with these exactions, their property was forcibly seized and confiscated to the crown. The pope's bull forbidding them to sub- mit to the taxations of the government did not intimidate the king from enforcing his measures; and the contributions were made, but not without complaint. With Philip, however, the pontiff contested this right with more promptness and decision ; and the contest was carried on bftween them, with an apparent determination on each side, to maintain their respective claims. The imprisonment by the king of the pope's legate, for disrespectful conduct, was the circumstance which seems to have occasioned the open rupture between them. Boniface's bull, 228 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th centurj, entitled " Clericis laicos," issued some years previous to this event, forbidding the clergy to pay any tribute to their respective govern- ments without his consent, had been disregarded both in England and France. The violation of the sacred privileges of a legate, was seized by him as oftering an advantageous ground for renewing the controversy with success. Accordingly he addressed a letter to Philip in the following laconic language: "Boniface, bishop and ser- vant of the servants of God; to Philip, king of France, "Fear God, and keep his commandments. We would have you to know that you are subject to us, both in things spiritual and temporal ; and we declare all those to be heretics who believe the contrary." This papal missive was not regarded by the king, and another was dictated, in a more imperative tone, and more definite as to the ex- tent of the papal jurisdiction. " God hath established us over kings and kingdoms, to pluck up, to overthrow, to destroy, to scatter, to build, and to plant, in his name, and by his doctrine. Do not allow yourself to be persuaded that you have not a superior, and that you are not subject to the head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. He that thinks thus is a fool ; and he that obstinately maintains it is an in- fidel, separated from the ilock of the good shepherd." Philip, not intimidated by this haughty and menacing language, replied to the epistle of Boniface with a becoming spirit ; and ordered his bull' to be publicly burnt in Paris. It was on this occasion, that he con- vened in a legislative assembly the three orders of his kingdom ; and this was the first meeting of the states-general, or the nobility, the clergy, and the people. The decided measures of the king were sustained by the assem- bly, each estate declaring unequivocally against the temporal pre- tensions of the pontiiT. A council was convened in Rome, and that famous constitution,^ which has already been alluded to, was pub- lished by Boniface. In this he asserted, " That Jesus Christ had granted a two fold power to his church, or in other words, the spiritual and temporal sword; that he had subjected the whole hu- man race to the authority of the Roman pontilf, and that whoever dared to disbelieve it, were to be deemed heretics, and stood ex- cluded from all possibility of salvation." The next step taken by Boniface, was to excommunicate Philip, and oiler the crown of France to thie emperor Albert. This was assuming at once, not only to destroy, but to build. Martin IV., in 1282, had off'ered the crown of Arragon to Charles of Valois. The power of deposing monarchs had been frequently exercised with ellect by the popes; but few instances are mentioned in history of their having success- 'This bull was entitled " Jlusculla fUii." -Entitled " Unam sanclam,'^ and is recorded in the Corp. Jur. Canon. Extract. Commun. " Utcrque est in potcstate ecclesiaj, spiritalis, scilicet gladius et malcrialis. Sed is quidcm pro ecclesia, iilo vcro ab ccclesia cxerceiidiis ; illc sacerdotis, is manu regum ac militum, sed ad nutum et patientiam sacerdotis, &c., &c." 14th century.] the church of christ. 229 fully attempted to substitute one prince for another, in violation oi the established rules of succession. Another measure of coercion was not yet resorted to, to place the kinj^dom of France under an interdict, and thereby to absolve his subjects from their allegiance. Whilst affairs were thus approaching a crisis, an emissary of the king went into Italy, and with the assistance of the family of the Colonnas, seized the pontiff. In consequence of the violence in- flicted on his person, and the mortification of feeling from the in- dignities he suffered, Boniface died soon after.' Although the powers of the popes may be said to have reached their fullest extent at this period, we may now date the commence- ment of their decline. The superstitious veneration which had prevailed among all classes of men for ages past, had begun for some time previously to be diminished. As the public mind became more enlightened, the false pretensions of popery were discerned, exposed, and at length disregarded. The princes who occupied the three most powert^ul thrones in Europe, in the beginning of this century, maintained their respective prerogatives with firmness. The successor of Albert, Henry VII., of the house of Luxemburg, vindicated his claims by the sword, and even imposed a tribute on all the States of Italy. The energetic reign of Edward III., com- menced in 1327. Clement V., removed from Rome to Avignon in 1309. These were prominent causes which were calculated to check the usurpations of the popes, and to weaken their preten- sions. IJiit there were other causes ; some of which have been re- ferred to, in the history of the preceding century. Whilst a general inquiry after truth, the cultivation of literature and philosophical investigations, v/ere perceptibly developing the powers of the mind, and producing a favorable change in the mor- als and the intellectual character of society ; the clergy alone, in- cluding the head of the Church, continued to retrograde, and to descend still deeper into the abyss of immorality and vice. " The governors of the Churcli," says Mosheim, " from the liighest to the lowest orders, were at this period, addicted to vices peculiarly dishonorable to their sacred character. Our silence would he inexcusable, since the flagrant abuses that prevailed among them were attended with consequences equally pernicious to the interests of religion and the well being of society." Boniface had 'Dante, in his Vision of Hell, represents Nicholas III., as exclaiming when he saw him, suppo.sing him to be Boniface — Ha^ already standest there? Already standest there, O Boniface! By many a year the writin;or play'd mo false. So early dust thou surfeit with llie wealth. For wiiich thou fearedst not in guile to take The lovely lady, and then mangle her? Canlo. ]Qth. " He entered the pontificate like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog."' 230 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th centurj. obtained the pontificate by bribery. Having persuaded the virtu- ous Celestine, whose virtues had made him odioys to the clergy, to abdicate the papal throne, he procured his own election by the in- famous crime ot" Simony. The first act oi" his administration was the imprisonment of his predecessor, a man of irreproachable mor- als, of evident sanctity, and advanced in life. His whole career was one of insatiable avarice, and the most indomitable ambition. After his death, Benedict XI., reigned for the short term of nine months; and died from the effects of a poisonous draught. His successor Clement V., who had been the arch-bishop of Bourdeaux, received the suffrages of the electoral college, through the influence and machinations of the king of France. The revocation of all the bulls published by Boniface against Philip, by the timid and cautious Benedict, was a severe blow to the temporal authority of the popes. The Christian world beheld with amazement the triumph of a prince over the head of the Church, at a period of its highest pretensions. The superstitious dread of an excommunication thundered from the chair of St. Peter, was weakened ; for that thunder was now heard to roll harmlessly over the head of one who had dared to defy its powers. Popery for the first time receded, and that single step of retrocession, proved that it was neither infallible, nor invincible. The next fatal error was the removal of the papal court to Avignon. This was, however, both a cause and a consequence of its weakness. The civil commotions which disturbed the peace of Rome, and the dangers to which the popes were exposed by the contending factions in the city, had frequently compelled them to reside, un- willing exiles from the Vatican, in the more quiet and retired cities of Italy. The dissensions which prevailed in the twelfth century, and the acts of personal violence committed by the excited populace against the vicars of Christ, have been adverted to in the history of that period. It is certain that the disunity of the pontiffs was less respected in the capital, than in the distant provinces under the jur- isdiction of the Romish see. " Though the name and authority of the court of Rome were so terrible in the remote countries of Europe, which were sunk in profound ignorance, and u^ere entirely unacquainted with its character and conduct; the pope was so little revered at home, that his inveterate enemies surrounded the gates of Rome itself", and even controlled his government in that city; and the ambassadors, who, from the distant extremity of Europe, carried to him the humble, or ratlier abject,' submissions of the greatest potentate of the age, found the utmost ditliculty to make tlieir way to him, and to throw themselves at his feet." (Hume.) No traces of the ancient republican features of the government re- mained. The titles of senator and consul occasionally occur in its history ; but they were distinctions, without the appendages of office and power. The prsefect, who united in his person the char- 14th century.] the church of christ. 231 acters and prerogatives of a civil as well as a criminal judge under the emperor Constantine and his successors, had dwindled down to the otiiccr of a municipality. It was the custom, not only in Rome, but in many of the Italian cities, to call to the civil administration of alfairs, a foreigner of reputed worth, who exercised a kind of magisterial jurisdiction for a limited period, to whom was given the title of senator. But this was aholished by Nicholas III., and the title, as well as the office, was invested in the reigning pontilf. Tliere seems to have been in the fourteentli century, no department in the civil government of the city, distinct from the ecclesiastical, #'ith power to control and administer its internal ati'airs. The rival families of Colonna and Ursini — the former, the representative of the Gliibeline party, and the latter that of the Guelphs — had ac- quired an entire ascendency over the otficial rulers of the city. The rival inliuences which they exercised occasioned those Irequent outi;ages and acts of violence, which disturbed the peace of Rome. Tlie Colonnas were the constant and powerful enemies of the popes; and were the abettors of the seditious movements, which contra- vened their authority, and sometimes endangered their lives. From tlie tumults which these antagonist factions created, the pontiifs withdrew into Anagni, Perugia, Viturbo, and the adjacent cities. It was in Anagni, that Boniface was surprised by Nogaret, the emis- sary of Philip ; and it was from the party of the Colonnas who ac- companied him, that tlie pope received those personal indignities which occasioned his death. In consequence then of these dissensions in Rome, and from the persuasions of the king, Clement removed his court from Italy to the banks of the Rhone. One of the immediate results of this measure was the ascendency of the Colonnas, or the Ghibelines, in Italy, " insomuch, that they not only invaded and ravaged St. Pe- ter's patrimony, but even attacked the papal authority, by their writings. This caused many cities to revolt from the popes ; even Rome Itself was the grand source and fomenter of cabals, tumults, and civil wars. The laws and decrees sent thither from France, were publicly treated with contempt by tlie common people, as well as by the nobles." Before we proceed to notice the events which are properly com- prised in the general history of the Church, those connected with the particular succession of the several popes, who reigned in this century, should be first adverted to. After the death of Clement, in the year 1314, the see remained vacant two years ; and the Church, as it had frequently before, pre- sented a singular prodigy, a vast body and huge limbs without a head. The cardinals, now being principally French, supported the pretensions of a candidate of their own nation. The electoral college was thus distracted by tw^o contending factions; and the election of a successor was protracted by the cabals and the in- 232 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th century. trigucs of the parties until the year 1316. The cardinal bishop of Porto, was finally chosen, and assumed the title of John XXII. The same difficulty occurred in 1334; and nearly a year had ex- pired, after the death of John, before the vacancy was filled by the choice of the cardinal of St. Prisca, who is known in the calendar as Benedict XII. In the year 1370, a French ecclesiastic was ele- vated to the papal chair in Avignon. No dissensions had disturbed the conclave of cardinals since 1334, and Gregory XI. succeeded to the pontificate. This pontitT returned to Rome in 1376, or six- ty-seven years after Clement V. had removed his court lo Avignon, This period, however, is generally supposed to have been seventj^ years ; and was by the Italians, in derision, entitled the Babylonish captivity. Gregory was persuaded to this measure by Catharine, a virgin of Sens; who, professing to be endowed with the spirit of pro- phecy, and to be moved by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, so wrought upon the mind of her spiritual father, that he assented. But his reception in Rome by the people, who treated him with the grossest indignities, determined him to return to Avignon; which he ^vas preparing to do, when death put an end to all of his world- ly plans and expectations in 1378. The death of Gregory, and the efforts to fill the vacant chair, were accompanied by dissensions in the electoral college ; and pro- duced that " great schism^ of the West," as it has been termed in ecclesiastical history, which was not healed until the accession of Martin V., in the year 1419. Thus was the Church, one and indi- visible, distracted, and torn by contending factions, for more than forty years. Twenty-two cardinals composed the electoral college. Sixteen of these assembled in conclave ; the remaining six were at Avignon. The arch-bishop of Bari, was elected; was adored, in- vested and crowned; and assumed the title of Urban \T. This election was hastened by the tumultuous populace without ; who 'This term, taken in a strictly scriptural sense, has been misapplied by the Churches generally, both Protestant and [lapal. It occurs in three instances only in the Scrip- ture of the New Testament. In the first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul says-', 1st chap. 10th verse. " Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and tliut tliero bo no divit^ions (in the origi- nal sriiisms,) among you." And in the 1 lib chap. 18th verse, " For first of all, when ye come together in the Ciiurch, I hear that there be divisions (schisms) among you, &c." And in the 12th chap. 25tli ver.se, "That there should be no schism in the body; but tliat the members should have the same care one for another.'' In the first, Paul explains his n)caning by remarking, " For it hath been declared unto me — tiiat there arc contcntinns among you." In the second, he expressly alluiios to their conduct at /he Lord's Sup[)er. In the third, ho addres.ses them as members of one body ; and intimates that, not having the .same care one for another, as tlie mem- bers of the natural body have, is the sckism which he has mentioned. Schism, there- foie, in a scriptural sense, is not a separation or xcilhdnmul from the Churcii. T/ie motive for doing tiiis, as from apostacy, for instance, from spiritual fiitli, might make it sinful. If the object be, to unite with another orthodox Christian Church, tho withdrawal is not schistn. 14th century.] the church of christ. 233 insisted, by threats and clamors, upon the choice of an Italian. The eleven French cardinals who voted, would iiave preferred one of their own nation; but they were intimidated by the mob; and ac- quiesced in the choice. Urban was arrogant and overbearing; and became odious to the electors themselves ; who soon after with- drew from Rome to Fondi, and there formally elected Robert, count of Geneva, as the successor of Gregory. He was known as Clement VII. They alledged, that their votes had been given to the arch-bisliop of Bari, under coercion, and in obedience to the imperative demands of the people. ^ Urban remained in Rome; Clement established his papal court at Avignon. France, Spain, Scotland, Sicily and Cyprus, acknow- ledged Clement as the legitimate successor of St. Peter; the other European states adhered to Urban as the true apostolic vicar of Christ. From their respective thrones, these ghostly fathers thun- dered against each other, the most bitter anathemas. The curses from Mount Ebal were not re-echoed by blessings from Gerizim. A question arises which must be submitted to the tribunal of the Casuist: whether the constraint imposed by the intimidations of the populace ought not to have vitiated the election in Rome.'' " The conclave," says Gibbon, " was intimidated by the shouts, and en- compassed by the arms of thirty thousand rebels; the bells of the capitol and St. Peter's rang in alarm ; Death, or an Italian pope ! was the universal cry; tlie same tbreat was repeated by the twelve bannerets or chiefs of the quarters, in the form of charitable ad- vice; some preparations were made for burning the obstinate car- dinals, and had they chosen a transalpine subject, it is probable that they u'ould never have departed alive from the Vatican. — The same constraint imposed the necessity of dissembling in the eyes of Rome and of the wor-ld; the pride and cruelty of Ui'ban piTsented a more inevitable danger; and they soon discovered the features of the tyrant, who could walk in his garden and recite his Breviary, ^vhile he heard from an adjacent chamber, six cardinals groaning on the rack." It is even to the present day a controvert- ed question, which of those two claimants should have been con- sideied the legal possessor of the papal throne. But to Protestants it is one altogether devoid of interest ; who very pi'operly view the whole system of poper-y, as founded on fraud, and perpetuated by iniquity, and the pretended apostolic succession as a mere figment of the brain, with which the true churches of Christ are no more concerned, than they should be with the royal race of the Sophis of Persia, or the Mohammedan succession in the em[)ire of the Ot- tomans. Some of the writers who iiavc transmitted to us a history of these events, represent the superstitious and deluded papists of the time, as exceedingly jierplexed, as to which of those j)relendcd vi- cars of Christ they should reverence as their giiostly father, be- 234 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th ccntury. lieving, in their ignorance, that the gates of heaven were closed against all who did not maintain an intimate and spiritual union with him to whom the keys liad been intrusted. In the year 1389 Urban died, and was succeeded by Boniface IX. Clement died in 1394, and Peter de Luna was elected by the French cardinals, who assumed the title of Benedict Xlll. The schism was evidently as far from being healed as in the outset of the controversy, and it w^as equally evident, that neither of these pontiffs having received the majority of the electoral votes of the whole college of cardinals, as enacted by Gregory X. in a general council convened at Lyons in 1274, the chair of St. Peter could not be legally occupied by either; and w'as in fact, vacant. With a view of remedying this evil, if indeed it were one, a general wish was expressed, that both aspirants should withdraw their claims; and a new election be submitted to the conclave. All eftbrts to ef- fect a compromise, in which kings, princes, and bishops, zealously engaged, were frustrated by the obstinacy of those ambitious pre- lates. This measure was suggested by the doctors of the Sor- honne, Paris. The Gallican church sustained this course ; and in a council at Paris in 1397, when every plan of reconciliation, and of peace, had utterly failed, renounced solemnly its obedience to both pontiffs, and thus by a formal process declared the chair of St. Peter vacant; and the Church without a head. In the follow- ing year, Benedict was detained a prisoner in his palace at Avig- non, by order of the king of France. Such was the state of the Romish church, at the close of this century. These dissensions in the Church had a most happy influence in weakening the superstitious attachment of the people to the hier- archy of Rome; they accelerated the change in public sentiment in relation to the sanctity of its character; and prepared the minds of all classes of men, except the most bigoted of the clergy, for that religious revolution which a concurrence of circumstances now pointed to as a pencil of light. When ^ve look back, from our own age, through the vista of six hundred years, to the events of the thirteenlli century; and from that distant period, trace up the progress of the Reformation to its consummation in the sixteenth century; we cannot but admire the wisdom and power of Divine Providence, in the successive developments of moral agencies seem- ingly unconnected with each other, and yet all of them co-Oj)era- ting in the accomplishment of that sublime scheme of spii-itual re- generation and gospel freedom, with which God had designed in his own proper time, to bless his adlicted peoi)le. Almost at the precise point of time when the papal power was elevated to its highest pinnacle, we can discern in the concurrent events, the sen- tence already gone forth from the throne of the Majesty on high, " Thus far slialt thou go, and no further." When at the great Jubi- lee celebrated by Boniface, the most impious and the haughtiest 14th century.] the church of christ. 235 pontiff who had opposed and exalted himself above all that is call- ed God, and who as God had sat in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God; a thousand of his lords drank wine before him; and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone; in that same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the altar upon the plaster of the Vatican, '' God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it." The removal of the papal seat to Avignon, was a measure un- expected by the Christian world, and most fatal to tlie Romish hierarchy. This was done by Clement V.^ The residence of the popes out of Italy, for about seventy years, not only strengthened the factions in Rome opposed to them, and occasioned the waste of their Italian possessions, but these pecuniary resources having been thus diminished, they were compelled to resort to other ex- traordinary means of replenishing their coffers, commensurate with their extravagance and profusion of living. Extortion, and the vilest expedients to acquire wealth, formed their financial system. The origin of these abuses may, however, be traced from an earlier period than this. They became more aggravated, from the necessity of the case, and therefore, called more imperatively for redress. As in the sixteenth century the extravagance of Leo X. led to a most palpable abuse of the prerogative of granting indul- gences, which the popes had exercised for centuries before, and gave the first strong impulse to the spirit of reformation through- out Europe ; so in this century, the abuses, and not the usurpation of papal privileges, may be said to have wrought a change in pub- lic sentiment. The traffic in indulgences was a prolific source of complaint, and seems to have been one of the grievances which at tliis period produced a general feeling of discontent. Scandalous licenses of every description were publicly offered for sale, and were disposed of at exorbitant prices. The first year's income of a spiritual liv- ing, or Annates, were exacted with rigor from all ecclesiastical benefices, agreeably to a tariff, or table of imposts, enrolled in the records of the Roman chancery. By the concordat, between the 'Dante haa immortalized the vices of this pontiff in his Vision of Hell. Ho repre- sents tiie popes as fixed with their heads downwards in certain apertures, so tliat no more of them than the legs appear witiioiit, and on the soles of their feet are seen burning flames. As a successor, wiio hris left iho apostolic chair, appears, he takes the place of one thus suspended wlio falls into the gulf below. Nicholas III. tells the poet that, " 'Midst them I also low shall fall, soon as lie (Boniface) comes, for whom 1 took thee." '' But already longer time Ilalli passed, since my soles kindled, and 1 tiius Upliirri'd have stood, than is his doom to stand Planted witli fiery feet. For after him, *One yet of deeds more ugly shall ariive, From forth the west, a shepherd without law, Fated to cover both his form and mine.'' Canto 19t/i. ♦Clement V. 236 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th centurj. emperor Henry V. and Calixtus II., in the year 1122, wliea the vexed question of the right of investitures was settled; bishops and abbots were to be elected by the monks and canons; and in the event of the chapter not agreeing upon the choice of a candidate, the decision was reposed in the emperor ; and the regalia were to be conferred by the ceremony of the sceptre, and not of the ring and crosier, as formerly. This interference in the spiritual aii'airs of the Church, was however, conceded to Innocent III., by the emperor Otho IV. This pontiff and his successors, contrived to bring within their jurisdiction the entire control of all benetices. A canonical disqualification in the peison elected vitiated the pro- ceedings of the chapter, and the pontif!" pronounced him non-elec- tus. The next assumption was, the right of supplying the vacan- cy by a simple nomination. Next followed tlie privilege of re- commending to the bishop a favorite for preferment ; and afterward the riglit of presentation ; subsequently, the pontiff claimed the power of reserving benefices, or of nominating to them during the lifetime of the incumbents. John XXII., one of the Avignon popes, claimed the whole ground, and asserted his right to all the benefi- ces in Christendom. The translation of bishops had appertained to the Metropolitan until the pontificate of Innocent III., when it was vested in tlie see of Rome. Thus insensibly arose the long train of spiritual prerogatives vviiich became united under one head, and in this century, pluralities, annates, reserves, provisions, expectatives, &c., became familiar terms ; and were higldy offensive to the com- munity at large. The holding of more than one benefice was re- strained by the twelfth general council (4th of Latcian,) in 1215; but this was easily evaded by papal dispensation. In addition to these sources of revenue, of which the sale of indulgences formed not the least important part, may be mentioned the imposts on the clergy. Innocent III. imposed a tribute of one fortieth of movea- ble estate in 1199, Gregory IX. exacted a tax from the clergy in England, to protect his temporal interests in Italy. "By levies of money, and by the revenues of benefices, that pope is said to have drawn from the kingdom, the incredible sum of fifteen millions sterling." John XXII. levied a tenth of the ecclesiastical revenues in France. The pontiffs expected from the arch-bishops at their investiture a donative ; which, although not demanded as of right, was expected by one party, and seldom withheld by the other when the pallium was received. Such is a brief sketch of the insatiable avarice of the popes in this century. John XXII. is said to Iiave left in his coffers, at his death, eighteen millions of florins in specie; and plate, jewelry, crowns, &c., valued at seven millions more.^ These exactions ex- ' Now Peter and .John went »ip to;^ctlier into tlie temple at tlio hour of prayer. And a certain man lame from bis niollier's womb was carried, wliom lliey liiid daily at the gate of the temple which is called I3t;auliful, to ask alms of Ihciii thai cuter- 14th century.] the church of christ. 237 cited general indignation ; and tlie people could no longer bear in silence, those unjust and onerous impositions. In the year 1350, the parliament ot" England passed tlie famous statute of Provisors} " It declared all elections and collations free; and that, if any pro- vision or reservation be made by the court of Rome, the king shall for that turn have the collation of such benehce, if it be of eccle- siastical election or patronage. This was to correct the abuses which had arisen from the spiritual usurpations of the popes. As an evidence of the extent to which these had been carried, it is stated, that some clerks enjoyed more than twenty ben(;fices by the papal dispensation. It was however, soon after the enactment of this law, discovered that its provisions were inefficient barriers against the encroachments of the pontiffs, as they were successful- ly evaded by the ingenuity and artifice of the clergy in collusion with the court of Rome. In the following reign (the 2d Richard,) the statute of Prczmu- nire- was passed, by which, " all persons bringing papal bulls, for translation of bishops, and other enumerated purposes, into the kingdom, were subjected to the penalties of forfeiture and perpet- ual imprisonment." This, with the statute of Provisors, remedied effectually the evils of papal usurpations. The first encroachment on the civil rights, in the kingdom of England, by the court of Rome, was in the reign of William the Conqueror. That prince peremptorily refused to do homage to Gregory VII. as his feudal lord ; but from motives of policy he permitted his legate a latere to levy a taxation on his subjects. — - This was called Peter-pence, from the circumstance of its being- collected on the festival of St. Peter. He thus yielded the princi- ple and the power, while he tenaciously clung to the shadow of this arbitrary pretension. The claim was in fact, founded upon the feudal system, which the popes were artful enough to engraft upon the ecclesiastical constitution. Hence arose the spiritual benefices in the Church, as analagous to the bcnelicia or estates held by the feudatories as voluntary gifts from their superiors. This spii-itual fee was naturally accompanied with the incumbrances attached to the temporal estate with which it corresponded, as the ceremony cd into the temple, wlio seeing' Peter anil John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon liiin with John, said, Look on us. And lie gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of tliein. Then Peter said, Silver and p;old have. I none. ; but such as I have give I thee ; In the name of Jesus Ciirisl of Nazareth rise up and walli." Acts iii. ' '' A provisor is a person appointed by the pope, to a benefice before the deatii of the incumbent, and to the prejudice of the rightful patron." " Collation is the pre- sentation of a clergyman to a benefice liy a bisliop.'' - Pramunire, to fortify beforehand. Tiie writ by which tlie prosecution or suit was instituted, was entitled a Pnvinunire facias, which was a corruption of the term Prmmnneri, &c. Its object was to forwarn tlie defendant to appear and to answer in court the charges alledged against him. 138 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th ccnturj* of investiture, escheat, rent or tithes, oath of fealty, or canonical obedience, annates, or a year's income of the spiritual living, and innumerable taxations, in imitation of the aids and taliiages paid by the vassal to his lord. The avaricious exactions, and progressive usurpations of the popes, as spiritual lords, have been adverted to. To check the further progress of these grievous impositions, and to restore the rightful authority of the crown, Edward I. assumed the first decided stand, not only by taxing the clergy within his do- minions ; but by strengthening the statutes of mortmain^ which re- strained the acquisition of estates by ecclesiastical corporations ; and declaring it an act of treason in a subject to procure a papal bull of excommunication against a citizen of the Realm. These measures of resistance against the usurpations of the Romish church, laid the foundation of the further legislative provisions en- acted in the reign of Edward 111., and of his successor, Richard II. Another statute was passed in the next century, under the usurper Henry IV., of the house of Lancaster, which declared all persons accepting provisions from the pope, subject to the penalties of a Procmunire} Such were the eflbrts in England, to cast off these badges of servitude to a foreign potentate. Martin V. pub- lished a bull against this parliamentary act, which he declared to be " execrabile statulum,'''' and commanded arch-bishop Chicheley to have it repealed. In the twelfth century, the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, at- tempted to impose restraints on the alienation of beneficia or fiefs, either to the church or others, without the consent of the superior loi-ds ; but this wise and salutary provision was rendered nugatory by the paramount authority of the pontiffs. In the beginning of this century, thirty-five vacancies are said to have been filled with- in one diocese, by prebendaries not appointed by the regular pa- tron. In the middle of the last, or thirteenth century, these spirit- ual usurpations and abuses had become so oppressive, that Louis IX. of France, to correct the evil within liis kingdom, issued an edict, known as the Pragmatic sanction, securing to all patrons, the right of collating to benefices within their respective jurisdictions, as prescribed by the canons ; to all churches the right of free elec- tion; and to the king and the national church, their previous exer- cise of the privilege of expressing their assent or disapproval, be- fore any pecuniary exactions were levied by the pope. This re- straining edict was, however, either evaded, or openly disregarded, by such arbitrary pontiffs as Clement IV., Boniface VIII., or Clem- 'Tt will be obperved lliat tliis term, first intended as tlic definition of a particular offense, or of tlie writ by which a proseculion was commenced for tlic iillcdgcd com- mission nf that offense, was extended to penalties annexed to many oilier oll'enscs, which had no relation to that original oflVnse, and tiiesc were declared liy the sever- al statutes to be acts of prninninirc. .So that the term has been apfiiied generally to offenses, punishable by confiscation and imprisonment, at the will of the sovereign. 1 4th century.] the church of christ. 239 ent V. Tliis last assumed the broad and comprehensive ground, that " The pope, as universal patron, might freely bestow ail ec- clesiastical benetices." The edict of Louis has been considered, notwithstanding, the corner-stone of the franchises and immunities which the Gallican church has boasted of enjoying, independent of the court of Rome. The peculiar privileges which it more cer- tainly acquired afterward, and still maintains, sprung out of the schism in the Romish church, in this and the following century. This, however, belongs more properly to the history of the six- teenth century. It is evident, from these facts, that a general disquietude under the oppressions of the pontiff, prevailed in Europe at this period; and tliat there grew up a spirit of resistance, which spiritual tyran- ny and [)ower could no longer intimidate or suppress. The crisis had arrived ; and that tyranny had become so oppressive, that pow- er so paramount to all political institutions, that one of two alterna- tives was submitted to the governments and potentates of Europe, either to succumb like vassals to the supremacy of spiritual Rome, and quietly subject their necks to the servile yoke, or to resist its usurpations, and claim as of natural right, their civil and religious liberty. In the conflict, England, which had been disgraced by the craven spirit and pusillanimity of her John, displayed in tlie 1st and 3d of her Edwards, a steadfastness of purpose, and a spirit of national independence, which enabled her at once to unnerve the arm of her oppressor, and to humble the lofty tone of the papal hierarchy. " When the holy see resented the proceedings of the English parliament, and Pope Urban V. attempted to revive the vassalage and annual rent to which king John had subjected his kingdom, it was unanimously agreed by all the estates of the realm in parliament assembled, that king John's donation was null and void, being without the concurrence of parliament, and contrary to his coronation oath ; and all the temporal nobility and commons en- gaged, that if the pope should endeavor by process or otherwise, to maintain these usurpations, they would resist and withstand him with all their power." ^ As early as the seventh century, Boniface V. declared the sanc- tuaries of public worship, asylums for fugitives from justice. This was the introduction of clerical privileges. In the eighth century, Charlemagne permitted the bishops to have prisons. This vested in the church a temporal power, and enabled it to enforce its judg- ments by the aid of the civil magistrate. Indeed as early as the time of Constantine the Great, the officers of the government were ordered to enforce the judicial sentence of the bishops. To ex- tend still further the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the court of Rome procured the forgery of an edict, which was interpolated in the 'Blackstone's Commentaries. 240 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th ceiiturj. Theodosian code, vesting in the episcopal tribunal, a power to de- cide all controversies even of a civil nature, if referred to volun- tarily by either party. This fraudulent record was said to have been imposed upon Charlemagne as an authentic document. The ecclesiastical councils in the hfth century prohibited, under a pen- alty of excommunication, the bishops and priests i'rom referring their cases in controversy to civil tribunals. Justinian in the cen- tury after, decreed that all matters in litigation, in which any of the clergy were defendants, should be decided by the diocesans ; and by this emperor, bishops were declared not to be amenable to the civil tribunals. But about the close of the eighth century, the privileges of the clergy were secured by an imperial decree of Charlemagne, which declared, " That clerks of the ecclesiastical order who shall commit an oilense, shall be tried by ecclesiastics and not by laymen." This restraint upon the secular arm, in rela- tion to the clergy, did not restrain the latter from interfering in the temporal concerns of the civil government. At this period, an ec- clesiastical council in England, undertook to decree that a prince of illegitimate birth could not ascend the throne. The privileges to which we have alluded were regarded, however, as personal exemptions, or as I'ights of a peculiar character; and not as vest- ing in the church any prerogatives independent of, or above the government of the state ; to which indeed, in the course of time, they were by a stretch of arbitrary power extended. The emper- ors constantly exercised a control over the ecumenical councils, and over the elections of the pontiff's themselves, until a very late period. It may be inferred, that the powers of the bishops were thus greatly enlarged. In the ninth century, they had arrived at their highest elevation ; and were invested with greater privileges and dignities, than they afterward enjoyed. Even as late as the twelfth century, in England, that ecclesiastical order claimed the right of deciding upon a question of legal accession to the throne. But from the tenth century, the popes gradually acquired an as- cendency, whicli has constantly since that period, been maintained over all orders of the Romish church. The rise, progress, and consummation of this privilege of the clergy, form a remarkable feature of ecclesiastical history. What was conceded as a favor, and accepted with thankfulness, was in time, tenaciously retained as a right, and exercised under every circumstance of aggravation. " Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm," were construed as conferring a divine right; and this, first attached to the highest order of the clergy, was at length extended to the most inferior officers in the church; and by a latitude of construction, eventually to such as were strictly lay- man. Tills was assumed to be a right so inherent and unalienable, that as Innocent III. affirmed, " the clergy could not be deprived of it with their own consent." i4th century.] the church of christ. 241 The j3rivileg"es of the clerijy, althoug-h commencing as early as the time of Constantine, were not universally established for sev- eral centuries after. The principle of ecclesiastical pre-eminence forms the basis of the constitutions of the Romish church. The language of the Decretals maintains, that " The laws of the civil power cannot reach the affairs of the Church, or the persons of the clergy, nor can they operate to the prejudice of their property; that the sacerdotal orders are to be honored, and not judged, by princes." From the admission of this principle, the persons of the clergy were not only esteemed sacred, but were exempt from all judicial process in the civil courts. Accompanying these per- sonal immunities were the ecclesiastical tribunals, to exercise ex- clusive jurisdiction in all spiritual matters. Thus, in a short time after the admission of the principle, we find ecclesiastical courts established in almost all the states of Europe. It was not, how- ever, until the reign of William, that they assumed in England, any- thing of a distinct form, and an organization separate from the civil tribunals. The withdrawal of spiritual causes from the secular courts, and the introduction of the canon law into the ecclesiastical courts, over wliich the bishops presided, as the rule of their deci- sions constituted the first important innovation in the judicial insti- tutions of the Anglo-Saxons. Although the ancient law was re- stored by his son Henry I., it was again abrogated by his successor Ste[)hen, through the influence of the clergy. At the accession of that usurper, in the year 1135, may be dated the firm establishment in that kingdom, of clerical exemptions from the secular arm, and independent spiritual judicatories. Henry II., by the constitutions of Clarendon, in 1164, endeavored to reduce the powers and priv- ileges of the ecclesiastical orders within a narrower compass; but his efforts were defeated by the arrogance of Thomas Becket, arch-bishop of Canterbury, and the resolute resistance of the Pope, Alexander III. Henry was borne down by the superstitious igno- rance of the times, and the example of his cotemporary, Louis VII. of France, who yielded to the exorbitant pretensions of the pope. It is not WMthin my design to describe the several ecclesiastical courts established in England ; as a knowledge of their structure and prerogatives can be obtained from higher and better autliori- ties. It may however, be remarked, that one of the objects of the constitutions of Clarendon, was to constitute the king, by the ju- dicial tribunals of the nation, the highest judicatory in tlie king- dom, to whom appeals may be carried up from the prerogative court for final adjudication. But this was never accomplished until the reign of Henry VIII., in the sixteenth century, " when all the jurisdiction usurped by the pope, in matters ecclesiastical, was re- stored to the crown, to which it originally belonged." In th.'^ I'cign of Elizabeth, the court of the king's high commission in ecclesias- tical causes, was established "to vindicate the dignity and jieace 16 242 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th century. of the Church, (then Protestant,) by reforming, ordering, and cor- recting, the ecclesiastical state and persons, and all manner of er- rors, heresies, schisms, abuses, otfenses, contempts, and enormities." But the powers exercised by the commissioners in that reign, and those succeeding, were so arbitrary and oppressive, tliat the statute was repealed, and the court abolished, in the reign of Charles 1. To return from this digression to the ecclesiastical courts and the claims of the clergy. It was admitted that those of the cleri- cal orders, distinguished by their dress and tonsure, were entitled to the privilegium clericale, or benefit of clergy. This privilege was soon extended to all wlio could read, as at that period, learn- ing was confined altogether to that class of persons. This privi- lege exempted them from the jurisdiction of lay tribunals ; but in England it extended to cases of felony only. It consisted in this, that a clerk, condemned by the civil tribunal, and claiming his priv- ilege in arrest of judgment, was delivered over to the ecclesiastical court, for a new trial, or, as it was termed, his expurgation. Be- fore this tribunal the culprit was seldom convicted; and this second trial was but a mockery of justice. Laymen who claimed this privilege, were branded in the thumb after their conviction, and then delivered over to the ecclesiastical court. Expurgation re- stored the accused, no matter wliat the nature of his ollense might have been, to a new and innocent man. And thus, under this priv- ilege, the clergy committed the most abominable crimes, and even murder, with entire impunity. The ecclesiastical tribunals did not confine themselves to the ad- judication of cases strictly spiritual. About the beginning of the twelfth century, they began to extend their authority beyond their prescribed limits; and from that period their usurpations were con- tinued until they obtained almost an entire jurisdiction over all per- sons and things. They became courts of conscience, and in al- most every controverted question, they assumed a right of decision. Contracts, whether matrimonial or otherwise, ])crjury, sacrilege, incest, usury, probate of wills, and the distribution of estates un- der them, &c., were all in time, brought within the sphere of their adjudication. By these courts, established in every state of Eu- rope, and from which the only appeal was to the pope himself, the Romish church acquired a control over the persons and property of the subjects of the most powerful princes in Christendom. In the beginning of this century, the spiritual and the temporal domi- nation of the pontiiTs, was systematized and complete. Civil and religious liberty was a mere phantom. From the potentate to the lowest subjects, all were brought within the reach of the sj)iritual arm ; none could escape the sentence which issued from the throne of the Vatican. But happily, events presaged a moral regenera- tion ; and a new era of spiritual light and civil freedom had al- 14tli century.] the church of christ. 243 ready commenced. We will here resume the general history of the Church. During the pontificate of John XXII., wlio was raised to the pa- pal throne after an interregnum of two years, a contest for the im- perial throne, arose between Lewis of Bavaria and Fiederick, duke of Austria. John, who maintained with his predecessors, that, "All disputes among princes were to be referred to the pope; that if either party refused to obey the sentence of Rome, lie was to be excommunicated and deposed ; and that every Christian sovereign was bound (o attack the refractory delinquent, under the pain of a similar forfeiture," proceeded to excommunicate Lewis, wiio had vanquished his competitor, because he had presumed to exercise an imperial authority without having first obtained the papal sanction. This was disregarded by Lewis, and John pronounced against him a sentence of deposition, and declared the throne vacant. The haughty pontiff", who would have excited another civil war in Ger- many to sustain his ridiculous pretensions, was in his turn, de- nounced as a heretic by the victorious Lewis, and the chair of St. Peter \vas filled by Nicholas V., elected under the influence of the emperor. Nicholas retained his seat at Rome, whilst John resided at Avignon. After two years, Nicholas voluntarily resigned, and delivered himself to John, who, with base ingratitude, imprisoned him during the i-emainder of his lite. The heresy of which John was accused by the emperor, and described as his beatific vision, was the opinion advanced by him, that " The souls of the faithful, in their intermediafe state, were per- mitted to behold Christ as man, but not the face of God, or the di- vine nature, before their re-union with the body, at the last day." This creed of the holy father, and infallible bead of the Church, became a sui)ject of animated controversy among the doctors, and at length was terminated by a formal condemnation of its ortho- doxy. John, with his usual obstinacy, adhered to it until the close of his life, when, fearing that he would be deemed a heretic after his death, he consented to submit to the judgment of the Church; and by this compromise escaped, without in fact having recanted his opinion, the opprobrium which would inevitably have been at- tached to his memory. He made some amends however for his heretical notions, by ordering all Christians to add to their prayers the words, wMth which the angel Gabriel saluted the Virgin JNlary, " Hail highly favored," &c. This pontilf was engaged through the greater j)art of his reign in an angry controversy with tiie Spirituals of the Franciscan order. This seems to have commenced with an order, requiring them to lay aside their short, straight habits, with the small hoods. This dress distinguished them from the less rigid branch of Franciscans, called " The brethren of the community." They insisted that this particular habit had been adopted I)y their founder St. Francis, 244 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th ceiiturj. who it appears, was directed immediately by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This interference of the pontiff, therefore, was against the letter and spirit of the gospel, and was unauthorized, and as a matter of conscience, could not command their obedience. These miserable and ignorant fanatics, whose only oti'ense appears to have been a superstitious attachment to their peculiar dress, an aversion to the comforts of life, and an obstinate refusal to comply with the requirement of the pope, were persecuted with envenomed rage. Their leader Delitiosi, was immured in a prison, where he died from the severity of his treatment, and four of his adherents were seized and burnt. This cruel and wicked execution exasperated the whole party of the Spirituals; and they boldly declared that John was unworthy of tlie pontifical otlice, and that he was the anti-Christ predicted of in Scripture. This heretical opinion brought down upon them a more relentless persecution. The in- quisition, which was under the government of the Dominicans, their bitter enemies, was directed to pursue them with the venge ance of the insulted church, and they were every where arrested, and con- signed to the torture and to the flames. In vindication of their bigoted attachment to poverty, they in- sisted, that neither Christ nor his apostles ever exercised an abso- lute right of property over any thing they possessed. This ag- gravated their first oiiense. John was avaricious, and had amassed immense wealth by his extortions. This was deemed, therefore, a direct condemnation of himself. For this heresy, fresh fires were kindled, and new tortures were devised, to suppress a tenet which mother church pronounced " A pestdential, erroneous, damnable, and blasphemous doctrine, subversive of the Catliolic (popish) faith." Thus persecuted Avith the extremest rigor, these innocent religionists fled to the dominions of Lewis of Bavaria, who extend- ed to them his protection. From Munich they published their in- vectives against John. Among them were men of literary arquire- ments, sucii as Marsilius of Padua, Occam, Bonagratia, and oth- ers ; who directly attacked, by theiv satirical writings, and by more labored treatises, the power and authority of the popes. These events appear of little importance in the general history of the Church ; hut they obtain an interest from their connection with the occurrences of this century, which unquestionably ad- vanced the progress of religious reformation. The S[)irituals, as a body, do not deserve the title of witnesses of the truth; for they were not; but rather, witnesses of the gross errors, the corrup- tions, and domineering temper of popery. Although they certain- ly did not suffer persecution for the faith, their contests with John, exposed the fallacy of the papal pretensions, and weakened the su- perstitious reverence for the character and persons of the pontiffs. It was evident that a fatal blow had been inflicted on the Ivomish hierarchy. As one of the concurrent causes which produced the 14lh century.] the church of christ. 245 Reformation in llie sixteenth century, the controversy between John and the Franciscans could not with propriety, have been passed over in silence, hinunierahlc parties, whether properly or not, termed religious, arose in tliis centui-y ; such as the order of the Apostolic Clerks, the Barlaamites, the Flagellants, the Dan- cers, &.C. &.C., but neither their creed nor discipline was calculated to purii'y the Church. In this century was introduced the festival to perpetuate the memory of the lance which pierced (he side of our Savior, the nails by which he was fastened to the cross, and the crown of thorns whic;h was put upon his head. Innocent V. is entitled to the honor of having, about the close of the last century, given the first suggestion to this absurd and superstitious ceremony. Bene- dict XII., not to be outdone by his predecessor, in wickedness and folly, instituted anotiier to commemorate the wounds inflicted by the spear. This seems to have been suggested by the Franciscans, w^ho asserted that Christ had impressed upon the sides of their founder, St. Francis, iive marks, or stigmas, as representations of those he liad received at tlie time of his crucilixion. This fabrica- tion was not only countenanced by the popes, but tiiey publicly maintained it by their bulls, which silenced all denial of its truth. The expression, Ave Maria, &c., in the prayers of the faithful, originated with John XXII. These facts are sufficient to show into what a corrupt state the Church had fallen-, and how much a reform in its head and in all its members was absolutely required to rescue the last traces of piety and vital religion from entire ob- literation. Popery was not only at war with spiritual matters, and laboring to etface the great truths of the gospel, but it armed itself against the intellectual efforts of the age. Asculanus, the physi- cian of John XXII., and celebrated as a philosopher and mathema- tician, was delivered up to the inquisition for having exhibited some experiments in mechanics, which the ignorance of the time could not comprehend, and therefore imputed to the j)owers of witch- craft. Nothing proves more strongly the general corruption of morals, and the debased condition of the Church, than the unbound- ed influence which the mendicant friars exercised over all classes of men, except those orders of the clergy wliose interests were in- juriously afl'ected by the control which those monks had acquired over the [)ublic mind. They occupied almost exclusively, the con- fessional chairs. A general bellel" prevailed that an association with tliose monastic orders, secured the favor of heaven. The dy- ing injunctions of the religious, exacted a promise from their friends, that their bodies would be wrapped in the tattered garments of the mendicants, and dcj)Osited in their cemeteries. IJishops, clergy, and doctors, were arrayed in their opposition to them ; but the popes held over them tlie shield of their protection. The Spirit- 246 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th cetitury. uals only, who were the least corrupt of those orders, were little favored by their ghostly fathers, THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. " The Alexians who constantly employed themselves about fu- nerals, had their rise at Antwerp ; at which place, about the year 1300, some honest, pious laymen formed a society. On account of their extraordinary temperance and modesty, they were styled Moderatists ; and also Lollards,^ from their attendance on funeral obsequies. From their cells they were termed " Cellite Brethren^ These associations seem to have been actuated at first by motives of charity ; and were organized for the purpose of discharging those duties to the sick and dying poor, which the clergy entirely neglected. In the obsequies of the dead, they were accustomed to chant a solemn dirge, and for this reason, they were called Lollards. As the term Beghard was applied to a person remarkable for piety, this sect was sometimes distinguished by that title. " In all the old records, from the eleventh century, these two words are synony- mous." The members of this charitable and religious community, were particularly favored by the people; but by reason of their moral deportment, and exemplary piety, they were extremely odi- ous to the clergy, and especially to the mendicant friars. Hence, a canon of Liege, referring to them, speaks of them as " Certain strolling hypocrites, who are called Lollards, or praisers of God," &c. The religious tenets of the Lollards were better known from the professions of their most distinguished leader, Walter, a native of Mentz, on the Rhine. He is called by a cotemporary writer, Wal- ter Lohareus, or Lolhardus. Whether he was the founder of this sect, is a controverted question, which appears not decided at the present day. The surname was given to him on account of his doctrines. Differing from the Romish church, he was called Lol- hardus, or a Lollard, an epithet at that time of great antiquity. He was also called by some a Beghard, and by others, a JMinorite. Walter the Lollard, went to England in the year 1315. He there propagated his doctrines; and had many adherents. His fol- lowers in that country, were no doubt, called Lollards, from that title having been attached to him before he left Germany. He is mentioned, by some historians, as a barb or pastor of the Walden- ses; whicli leaves the inference, that his religious tenets were sim- ilar to those of the Vaudois. So far as those tenets have been ^Lollcn, signifies " to singr with a. low voire." to whidi was added, ns a tcrminn- tion, ajj;reeably to Iiigli Dutcli dialect, the syllable, hard, lienco Lollenliard, and by contraction, Lollhard. Such is the derivation of the word Lnllard. 'I'liis was a term applied to many sectaries, having no connection in their tenets. Sometimes Lollard and Beghard were alike applied to liie same sect, as terms of reproach. Mosheim. 14th century.] the church of christ. 247 transmitted to us, it appears that he rejected the sacrifice of the mass, extreme unction, penances for sin, and infant baptism. He maintained that Christ ottered up once for all a full and sufficient sacrifice for the salvation of all believers; and that baptism was not essential to the salvation of infants, dissenting from the Romish church, which affirms, as a matter of faith, that all infants dying without baptism, are damned. Walter returned to Germany, and in the year 1322, was burnt as a heretic, in Cologne. But his followers in England were per-* secuted with the utmost severity. " The Lollard's Tower," says a writer, " still stands as a monument of their miseries, and of the cruelty of their implacable enemies. This tower is at Lambeth palace, and was fitted up for this purpose by Chicheby, arch-bishop of Canterbury. The vast staples and rings to which they were fastened, before they were brought out to the stake, are still to be seen in a large lumber-room at the top of the palace ; and ought to make Protestants look back with gratitude upon the hour which terminated so bloody a period." Among the disciples of Walter, were the celebrated John Wick- liffe and Sir John Oldcastle, better known in history as Lord Cob- ham; Wickliffe was in his youth distinguished for talents and literary acquirements ; and evinced an early attachment to theological stu- dies. At the age of sixteen he was admitted commoner of Queen's College, Oxford. He passed through the several degrees in the University, and at the age of forty-eight, the degree of doctor of divinity was conferred upon him. By his assiduous study of the Holy Scriptures, and endowed with an intellect clear and compre- hensive, he was enabled to maintain tlie great truths of tlie gospel against the combined attacks of the pontiffs and the doctors of the Church, and to establish those principles of religious liberty which formed the basis of tlie Reformation in the sixteenth century. — Wicklilfe was born in the year 1324, and died at the age of sixty, in the reign of Richard II. The statute of provisors passed in the year 1350-, and the sev- eral parliamentary enactments in the reign of Richard II., restrain- ing aliens from letting their benefices to farm ; next, making them incapable of being presented to any ecclesiastical preferments ; that, prohibiting the subjects of the king from accepting a living by any foreign provision; that, imposing severe penalties upon the in- troduction into the kingdom of any citation or excommunication from beyond sea, to defeat the operation of the preceeding legisla- tive provisions; and lastly, that declaring that " Whoever procures at Rome, or elsewhere, any translations, processes, excommunica- tions, bulls, &c., or other things, whicli touch the king, against him, his crown, and realm, and all persons aiding and assisting therein, shall be put out of the king's protection, and be subjected 248 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th centuiy. to a praemunire facias," &c., were all measures against the abuses of tlie papal prerog-atives arising from the dissemination of the principles of Wickliffe. "All ecclesiastical possessions," says a writer, " were marked for spoliation by the system of this relorm- er." It was not to be expected that the couit of Rome would be long silent under these successful elforts to arrest its career of usur- pations. The government of England assumed a firm and decided stand against the abuses which had arisen under the exercise of the .exorbitant powers claimed by the Romish hierarchy ; and to the principles triumphantly maintained by AVicklitie, this change of public opinion was justly attributed. He had attacked the vices of the Mendicant Friars, and of the monastic orders generally. These religious societies were endowed, not only with the tithes of the parishes, but with lands, manors, and extensive baronies. Pope Urban notified the king that he would summon him to Avignon, for his default in not paying tlie customary tribute, and rendering due homage tor his kingdom; Wickliife boldly maintained the indepen- dence of the realm, and sustained the king in his determination to resist such arbitrary and unfounded pretensions. He reproved the pride of the clergy; wrote against the rites and doctrines of the church of Rome; and at length in his public lectures directly at- tacked the authority of t!ie popes. The papal bulls were publish- ed against the retormer, and a process instituted against him in the ecclesiastical court. But the influence of the duke of Lancaster, protected him from the grasp of his enemies ; and although he was expelled fiom the University of Oxford, by the chancellor, he died in the peaceable possession of his parsonage at Lutterwortli. Wickliffe opposed the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the sale of indulgences, the sacrifice of the mass, the adoration of the host, purgatory, meritorious satisfactions by penance, auricular confes- sion, the celibacy of the clergy, papal excommunications, the wor- ship of images, the Virgin, and relics, and did not hesitate to de- clare that the pope of Rome was the anti-Christ mentioned in Scripture. Like the Lollards, he was opposed to infant l)aptism ; and a popish writer referring to his writings, speaks of him as " One of the seven heads that came out of the bottomless pit, for denying infant baptism, that heresy of the Lollards, of whom he was so great a ringleader." He published, not long before his death, a translation into English, of the Holy Scriptures. In the following century, the council of Constance condemned the mem- ory and opinions of Wickliffe by a solemn decree, and in the year 1428, his bones were dug up and publicly burnt." Cotemporary witli that great reformer, was Lord Cobham, who is said to have been, "the first noble author, and the first martyr in England, in the cause of the Reformation." He was a disciple of Wickliife. He is distinguished in history for his noble and val- iant spirit, and the opinion of his valor, joined to that of his hon- 14th century.] the church of christ. 249 esty and piety, secured to him universal popularity in England. His zeal in defense of the doctrines of Wicklitfe, and of the mea- sures of the government in opposition to the papal usurpations, rendered him particularly obnoxious to the clergy; and he was marked out by the arcli-bishop of Canterbury, as a proper object of vindictive punishment. An inquisition of heresy was procured under the seal of the king; and resulted in a charge against Cob- ham of heretical and seditious doctrines. His oifense was submit- ted to the king, (Henry V.,) and the prelate petitioned, " in all hu- mility and charity, tliat his majesty would sutler them, for Christ's sake, to put him to death." The king, sincerely attached to so brave a defender of his royal prerogatives, and of the kingdom, refused his assent to so summary a process ; and endeavored by argument and persuasion to bring him back into the bosom of the Church. But Cobham was unshaken in his faith. " 1 ever was a dutiful subject to your majesty," he said, "and I hope ever shall be. Next to God, I profess obedience to my king. But as for the spiritual dominion of the pope, I never could see on wiiat founda- tion it is claimed, nor can I pay him any obedience. As sure as God's word is true, to me it is fully evident, that he is tlie great anti-Christ foretold in Holy Writ." The king, fearful of the cen- sures of the Church, permitted the arch-bisliop to proceed against him. He was accoi'dingly excommunicated, and delivered over to the secular power. After a confinement of six months in the tow- er, he escaped and fled to Wales. But he could not elude the vig- ilance of his pursuers. He was eventually taken, and condemned as a heretic and a traitor. "He was hung up alive, by the middle, \vitji iron chains, on the gallows which had been prepared, under which a fire being made, he was burnt to death." Whilst these events were ti-anspiring in England, the principles of the Reformation were progressing on the continent. Huss, of Bohemia, had perused the writings of Wickliife, and aljjured the false doctrines of popery, and even before the death of that Eng- lish reformer, there are evidences of the reformed religion having been deeply planted in Germany, through the instrumentallity of his works. In his letter to Huss, written not long befoi'e his death, he says, " I rejoiced greatly at the brethren, coming to us from you, bearing testimony of you in tiie truth, and that ye walk in truth. I have heard how anti-Christ trouhleth you, causing many and vari- ous tribulations to the faitiiful in Christ. And no wonder that sucii things should be done among you, since the law of Christ suflfereth oppression from its adversaries over all the world ; and from that red dragon with many heads, which John speaks of in the Revela- tion, that cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that she might he carried away of it." " As a good soldier of Je- sus Christ, war in word and in deed; and recall into the way of truth as many as thou art able ; because neither by erroneous and 250 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [14th century. deceitful decrees, nor by the false opinions and doctrines of anti- Christ, is the truth of tiie gospel to be kept in silence and in se- cret." " It is a great joy to me, that not only in your kingdom, but elsewhere, God hath so strengthened the hearts of some, that they suffer with pleasure, imprisonments, banishments, and even death itself, for the Word of God." Tlie writings of Wickliffe were translated into the Sclavonian tongue ; and under the difficul- ties which then existed of circulating extensively the publications of the time, his doctrines were disseminated in almost every part of Europe. Huss communicated them from the pulpit, and in the Universities; his followers traversing the different provinces, ex- tended a knowledge of the truth, drawn from this source ; and a general spirit of inquiry was awakened. The zeal and untiring efforts of Wickliffe, tempered by his cul- tivated understanding, and by an abiding faith in God, gave an im- pulse to the cause of religious liberty in Europe. The new doc- trines, as tiiey were called, were readily received by the people wherever they were preached, and a cotemporary writer gives this testimony of their extensive circulation at the close of the four- teenth century, that in England, " More than one half of the peo- ple became Lollards." The papists were, hou'ever, as zealous and as untiring in their efforts to suppress these widely spread her- esies. The power of the government, notwithstanding the parlia- mentary provisions against abuses wliich grew out of the corrup- tion of the clergy, was still subservient to the authority of the popes. The civil officers were commissioned to aid the Church in silencing those who had raised tlieir voices against the popish doc- trines. Edward III. himself, although he had firmly withstood the court of Rome in measures touching what he affirmed lo be his royal prerogatives, empowered the magistrates to seize the persons and the writings of tlie Wickliffites or Lollards, as the I'eibrmers were called, and to imprison all who transcribed, sold, bought, or concealed their books. It is evident that the axe was not laid at the root of the tree ; and the sovereigns of England seemed to have designed no more than to lop off those branches which had extended their arms with too luxuriant a growth. Lord Cobham was martyred in the following century ; and in this, many distin- guished patrons of Wickliffe, wlio liad protected him from the grasp of the spiritual courts, preferred recantation to persecution. It was among the people, however, that tlie principles of religious reform acquired strength ; and although silently, continued to ex- tend. As we have already observed, the doctrines of WicklifTc were early transplanted to the continent. The opposition of the Eng- lish court to tlie measures of a radical change in religion, ex|)ns of the pontiffs; but through the skdful diplomacy and dishone-'t artifices of JEiwas Sylvius, (afterward pope Pms II.,) the seo'etary of Nicholas V., the papal chair recovered all the rights .vrested from it by that council. By a concordat at Aschatfenb>i-g, in 1448, with the em- peror Frederick III., the Annates wer^ restored; and the right of collating to benefices, with nominal orunimportant restrictions, was again vested in the Roman see. Tie system of aggression and of spiritual monopolies commenced a^''in; and the catalogue of griev- ances, drawn up by the diet at iVureniberg, in the next century, shows to what extent this sysf^^m had been carried in so short a time. The alleviations of the oppressions complained of were slight and temporary ; and ihe burdens imposed by the recent en- croachments became fuUy as onerous as the ancient impositions. Such were the results of ^hose controversies, which apparently were productive of evil rather than of good. But the remote con- sequences were hig-!ily beneficial to the cause of tlie reformation. It was evident, that no concessions would be made, in a spirit of compromise, by the court of Rome. The vices of the clergy be- came more /Fagranl ; and it may be said of the Church, that '■• from Ihe sole of the foot even unto the head there was no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores," and truly might we repeat the words of the prophet, " Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as So- dom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." The last 18 274 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [15th ceiitiiry. hope was in that spirit which was making its silent progress; and acquiring increased vigor, as the oppressions of ihe hierarchy be- cairie more aggravating. It was neither from, the Church itsell, nor from the authorities under it, nor yet from the temporal powers, that the evils were to be remedied. God had chosen his instru- ments for the work; and by these it was accomplished in his own appointed time. The recent schism, which had divided a church claiming an ex- clusive character of infallibility, terminated by the voluntary resig- nation of Felix. In the year 1458, iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, ascended the pontifical throne as Pius II. He Ojjposed, as a mem- ber of the council of Basle, the pretensions of Pi^iigenius; and sus- tained the council, by his eloquence and learning, in all its measures to reduce the pope to a subordination to its authority; but when elevated to the pontiiicate, he renounced his former princip'les, de- claiing, that "As Jilneas Sylvius, he had been a dam.nable heretic; hut as Pius 11. , he was an orthodox pontitf."^ By his subtlety and intrigue, he obtained from Louis XI., of France, a repeal of the decree which had been drawn up at Bourges in 1438, securing the clergy ot France from the usurpations of the Roman see. By this ecclesiastical constitution, know n as the Praginatic Sanction, " the nomination to t\ie bishoprics in France, and the collation of certain benefices of the Wilier class, were vested in the king, the Annates and other pecumaiy exactions of the pontiffs were abolished, and the authority of a geufrgl council was declared superior to that of the pope. The article; of this pragm.atic rescript were indeed but transcripts from the iecrees of the council of Basle, which Pius had himself vigorously defended. In return lor this conces- sion, Louis was remunerated by the title of " Most-Christian-Ma- jesty ;" by which his successors have been since distinguished. Pius, however, did not succeed )o the extent of his wishes, as the repeal was not formally registert'6; and the pragmatic sanction, or other provisions against the papal exactions, still secured the ri-hts of the Gallican church, until the conoordat of Francis I. and Leo X. in the next century, was forced upon the French nation. The successors of Pius II. were-, Pa^l \\, yvho reigned from 1464 to 1471; Sextus IV. who died m 1484; a^d Innocent YIIL who was succeeded in the year 1492, by Roderic Eorgia, a Span- iard by birth, the notorious Alexander VI. The character of Alexander, comprised within itself the accu- mulated vices of his predecessors. His reign elosed the fifteenth century, and ushered in the commencement of the sixteenth the beginning of a new eia of religious light and liberty. A\l 'he wri- ters of the age concur in giving testimony to the utter depravity of morals which pervaded all orders of the clergy, and God seems to have raised up one who filled the measure of their iifujuuios. "The life and actions of this man," says the historian, " show, that 15lh century.] the church of christ. 275 there was a Nero among the popes as well as amoni? the emperors. The crimes and enormities imputed to him evidently [)rove him to have been not only destitute oi' all religious and viituous principUts, hut even regardless ofdt^cency, and hardened against the very leel- ing of shame.'" " After living in illicit intercourse with a Roman lady, he continued a similar connection with one of her daughters, by whom he had five cluldren. As cardinal and arch-bishop, visit- ing the churches and hospitals, he was at the same time living in public prostitution with the most abandoned women in Rome. He obtained the pontifical chair by bribery." The city was thrown into consternation by tlie secret assassinations and blood-thirsty murders which marked his short but awful reign. " Every one feared to move or breatlie lest he should be the next victim. The spot on earth where all iniquity met and overfiowed was the pon- tiff's seat." Such is the brief sketch of the character of this mon- ster in human shape, this vicar of Christ, and legitimate apostolic successor of St. Peter. " Babylon had become, as the aposile has forcibly expressed it, the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit. Her sins had reached unto heaven, and God remem- bered her iniquities. The time was fast approaching when a voice would be heard from heaven, saying " Come out of her, my peo- ple, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." The apostolic succession has been succinctly traced from the earliest period of ecclesiastical history to the sixteenth century. The government of the Christian Chui'ch has been described in all its changes, and under all its diifeient phases, through fourteen hun- dred successive ages we have pursued its history. Within that period what revolutions have we witnessed ! Let the impartial reader here suspend his pi'ogress, and revert to the fii'st institution of that colossal power whose growth and maturity we have tiaced. How changed from its original simplicity, how corrupted anj de- formed from its pi'isfine purity and beauty ! Where shall we look in the papal cliutch for a single feature of that divine portrait drawn by the inspired pen of the apostles of Jesus Christ.'' Where shall we look for those who rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suder shame for his name.'' Would Gregory, or Innocent, Boni- face, or Alexander, have said in sincerity of feeling, " I am the least of tlie apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle .f*" And yet these are they through whom have been ti'ansmitted the apos- tolic succession, and the only divine right to preach the everlasting gospel of peace and salvation. These are " the bishops who were ordained by other bisliops; down to the apostles, who ordained them, and who were themselves ordained by Christ. These have been the only sacred depositaries of tlie truth; and who only can give authority to preach the word of God ! Such is the foundation of the whole structure of diocesan episcopacy. In all the pages of 276 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, [15lh ccntury. profane history, where shall we find, a pretension to a succession so visionary and unfounded, a lineage so iailacious in its origin, and so debased and corrupted by crimes ol the most flagrant and abomi- nable ciiaracter, a catalogue of such abandoned and wicked profli- gates and tyrants? From this corrupt stream, crimsoned with the blood of saints and holy martyrs, we are to draw the u ater of life as from a pure river proceeding out of tiie throne of God and of the Lamb ! The declension of the papal power throughout this century, was visibly marked out by incidents connected with the internal affairs of the Church. Tiie factions which agitated its bosom demon- strably revealed the fact, that harmony and peace dwelt not within it. The society of the Fratricelli, or the brethren of the spiritual order, had become more rebellious and refractory. Nolvvitlistand- ing the efforts of the pontiffs, in the preceding centuries, to reduce them to submission, by banishment and death; they still multiplied in numbers and inveighed against the corruptions and the usurpa- tions of the Roman hierarchy. The inquisitors themselves became victims of their vengeance. They received, although openly hos- tile to the court of Rome, patronage and protection, from men of influence, and even from the king of Bohemia. The persecution of these miserable fanatics was unceasing and severe. In Fiance, they were committed to the flames without mercy. They were pursued from one country to the other; but they adhered with the iaiihful- ness and the patience of martyrs to their fundamental doctrine, that " The true imitation of Christ consisted in beggary and extreme pov- erty." They were not permitted to cherish this humble and inno- cent sentiment. Their history is traced to the commencement of the great leligious movements in the next century ; wlien, it is sup- posed, tlie remnant of this sect became merged in the followers of Luther and the other prominent reformers of the age. Other religious sects arose who are worthy of notice for having maintained, with many gross enors, some of the doctrines drawn from the fundamental truths of the gospel. The " Men of under- standing,"' as these sectaries vvi^re called, believed, that '^ Christ alone had merited eternal life and felicity for the human race; and that, therefore, men could not acquire this inestimable privilege by their own actions alone." They denied that the priests, to \\ horn the people confessed their sins, had the power of absolving them ; affirmiim; that it was Christ alone that could do tliis. Thev did not believe that voluntary penance and mortification \vere necessary to salvation. These opinions were declared to be heretical ; and the "men of understanding" were compelled to submit to the judgment of the Chuich and to renounce tliem. The Flagellants, or Whippers, diflered from the cliurch of Rome, as to the eflicacy of the sacraments, the flames of purgatory, pray- ing tor the dead, and some other points of doctrines; but they where 15th century.] the church of christ. 277 not less absurd and superstitious than the papists j^enerally in other respects, 'lliey phiced great i-cliaiice on the efficacy of penance; and iiitiicted upon their naked bodies severe flagellations; but were notuiilisiandiiig the objects of a cruel persecution. They were ar- rested and committed to the flames. An ineflectual effort was made to unite the Greek and Latin cliurches. The strength and glory of the Eastern empire had de- parted ; and Maliomet II., had extended his conquests to the gates of Constantino[)le. In this extremity the patriarch ap[)ealed to the spiritual sovereign of the West for temporal aid* and piomised obedience as the condition. 'J'he emperor Jolin Palaiologus, the Grecian patriarch Josephus, and the most eminent bishops, appeared at Ferrara, whilst the pontifl" Eugenius, and the council of Basle, were carrying on an angry controversy on the question of suprem- acy. The dissensions which divided tiie Latin church, and the de- position of Engenius, presented obstacles which although partially removed, prevented for the time a reconciliation between the Eas- tern and Western churches. The inveterate hatred, however, which they cherished towards each other formed the strongest bar- rier to their union; and the emperor renounced a measure always unpopular with the whole body of tlie Greek clergy. In the year l45.j, Mahomet advanced with 300,000 men to the capital of the empire; Conslantuie, pressed by the dangers which threatened the safety of his throne, ui'ged upon the papal court the renewal of ne- gotiations, solicited assistance, and made a promise of spiritual obe- dience. The legate of Rome, the cardmal Isidore of Russia, ap- peared at Constantinople. He was saluted as a friend and father. The Greeks and Latins united in public worship, and partook to- gether of the sacrament of the eucharist. But the Latin father mingled water with the holy wine, and consecrated a wafer of un- leavened bread. The Greeks were ofl'ended by this violation of their sacred rites, and turned with aversion from the sacrilege. " Have patience, they whispered, have [)atience till God shall have delivered the city from the great dragon who seeks to devour us. You shall then perceive whether we are truly reconciled with the '■JlzymilesV^ The murmur of disapprobation was soon raised to open and loud exclamations against "the slaves of the pope." In the fervor of their zeal they cried out, "Far from us be the wor- ship of the .flzy miles.'''' The church of St. Sophia was deserted by the pious Greeks, as a place contaminated by the superstitious rites of the Latins, as a temple, suital)le only for the services of a Jew- ish synagOL^ne, or for the worship of heathen idolaters. " The Latins," they said, " were the most odious of heretics and infidels." 'Azymites, fioni tlio Gr: a and zame, without leaven. Ffenco the Jewish festi- val of Azyina. The term was apjiiied to Christians wlio administered tlie eucliarist witli unleavened i>read. It is supposed l(i have liecn enjoined by the Romish church about the commencement of the eleventh century. 278 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [15th century. The ^rcat duke, the first minister of the empire, exclaimed, that "He Would rather behold in the city the turban of Mahomet, than the pope's tiara, or a cardinal's hat." Such was the result of this negotiation for harmony and union. Constantinople was six months after taken hy the forces of Ma- homet, and became the seat of the Turkish empire. "In the church of St. Sophia, the Imam preached; and the Mussulman prince offered up prayer and thanksgiving on tlie great altar, wliere the Christian mysteries had so lately been celebrated hefore the last of the Cffisars.* The Greeks imputed their downfall to the indif- ference or the enmity of the Latins; and neither time, nor other circumstances, have softened the asperity of feeling between them. The Eastern and Western churches are still widely separated by an irreconcilable hatred. The innovations in 'he Romish church, were the witliholding the wine from the laity and the institution of the festival in commemo- ration of the transfiguration of Christ. Extraordinary indulgences were granted to those who would celebrate annually the festival of " the immaculate conception." CHAPTER XI. THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. A CELEBRATED French divine of the 17th century, lias remark- ed of the state of the Romish church at the period of our history, that " Religion itself, was made to consist of the performance of numerous ceremonies of Pagan, Jewish, and monkish extraction, all which might be performed witjiout either faith in God, or love to mankind. The Church ritual was an addiess, not to the reason, but to the senses of men; music stole the ear and soothed the pas- sions; statues, paintings, vestments, and various ornaments heguiled the eye; while the pause which was produced by that sudden at- tack which a multitude of ohjects made on the senses, on entering a spacious decorated edifice, was enthusiastically taken for devo- tion. Blind obedience was first allowed by courtesy, and then established by law. Public worship was performed in an unknown tongue, and the sacrament was adored as the body and blood of Christ. Vice, uncontrolled by reason or Scripture, retained a pa- gan vigor, and committed the most horrid ciimes; and superstition atoned for them, by buildmg and endowing religious houses, and by bestowing donations on the Church. Human merit was intro- 15th century.] the church of christ. 279 duced, saints were invoked, and the perfections of God were dis- tributed by canonization ainon^ the creatures of the pope."^ "The sulferings and merits oi' Christ," says a writer of this age, " were looked upon as an empty tale, or as llie fictions of Homer. Tiiere was no long-er any thoug-ht of that faith by whicii we are made partakers of the bavior's righteousness, and of the inlieri- tance of eternal life. Christ was reg-arded as a stern judge, pre- pared to condemn all who should not have recourse to the interces- sion of saints, or to the pope's indulgences. Other intercessors were substituted in his stead; first, the Virgin Mary, like the hea- then Diana; and then the saints, whose numbers were continually augmented by the popes. All maintained that the pope, being in the place of God, could not err," " The New Testament," said a monk, " is a book full of serpents and thorns." Pious and intelligent men every where beheld with sorrow the degradation into which the Church had fallen; and not a kw seem- ed, at a much earlier period than the fifteenth century, to foresee the certain accomplishment of the great work of reformation which had been slowly progressing for ages before. From century to centuiy the opposition to the Romisli church had continually ex- tended. Persecutions could not suppress it; the stake and the flames had failed to conquer it. The stone which had been cut out of the mountain widiout hands, was destined to become itself a great mountain, and to smite the image. The Reformation was not the work of the sixteenth century. It had commenced centuries before. Luther assisted in carrying on, as an humble instrument, what No- vatlan in the third century, Claudms of Turin in the ninth, VVick- liffe in the fourteenth, and the holy army oi' martyrs througliout the intervening ages, had faithfully labored to accomplish. The wit- nesses of the truth have constantly preserved the purity of the Church ; the gospel sound of salvation was never entirely silenced ; and the Great Head of the Church had reserved to himself faithful believers who never bowed the knee to the image of Baal. A pop- ular error has attril)uted to one man the work of reformation. The doctrines he maintained, have been erroneously termed the doc- trines of Germany ; and in violation oi" the incontestable evidences which history presents, the commencement of the Reformation has been dated from the sixteenth century. " Scarcely," says D'Au- bigne, " had Rome usurped power before a vigorous opposition was formed against her; and this endured tliroughout the middle ages." This we have traced by successive steps to the opening of the fifteenth century; and from this period the progress of the Reformation will l)e followed up to its close. The counts of Savoy, and the princt's of Piedmont, were toler- ant in their religious views, and resisted with firmness the attempts 'Sec Jones' History of the Christian Church. 280 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. [15th ceiitury, of the emissaries of Rome to molest their suhjects. While the persecutions by tlie Romish church desolated oilier countries, the inhabitants of the valleys enjoyed repose. Tlie missionaries of ihe inquisition beheld with dissatisfaction their exemption from the suf- ferings which had been inflicted on the heretics of France; and watched with an eager eye, the oj)portunity of springing upon them with the ferocity of uncaged tigers. They were ever crouched for their piey, but the inter[)Osing arm of the government protected these harmless victims from their merciless fangs. lu the year 1400, they were loosed from the leaslies, and like thirsty blood- hounds, bounded forward in the pursuit of their prey. A commis- sion was directed to Francis Boralli, a monk inquisitor, to search for and to punish tlie Waldenses in Geneva, Savoy, and the south- ern provinces of France. The cruelties inflicted upon the misera- ble inhabitants by this monster in human shape, cannot be faithfully described by the pen; and exhibited a ferocity of chaiacler which for the honor of humanity, should be buried in oblivion. This was however, but the beginning of sorrows. About this time the Vaudois of the valleys of Piedmont, were unexpectedly attacked by an army of papists. This occurred in ■pragela, in the month of Decembei-, and amid the seveiities of a winter season. Their enemies, in a spirit of premeditated slaugh- ter, had taken the precaution to occupy the caves and other places of safety to which tlie Vaudois might have retreated, and secured themselves either by eluding their pursuit, or defending themselves by advantageous positions on the mountains. The only alternative left to those who escaped the sword of their destroyers, was a pre- cipitate flight to the highest point of the Alps. Thither they di- rected their steps, through ravines, and over mountains deeply cov- ered with snow; the afllicted mothers bearing their infants in iheir arms, and leading those who were of too tender an age to surmount the difficulties without assistance. Great numbers were overtaken in their flight, and cruelly butchered. Those who escaped their pursuers, overtaken by the darkness of the night, and exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, perished from the cold. Eighty infants were found the next mornimg frozen to death, and many of the mothers either dead, or dying, and lyinu: by them on the snow. Whilst these forlorn fugitives were pcnshin<>- on the mountains, their houses were plundered, and their habitations made desolate. The cruelty of their enemies was satiated by hanging upon a tree a helpless woman whose infirmities disabled her from attempting an esca[)e. In the year 1415, John Huss suffered martyrdom at the stake. There appears to be an uncertainty as to tlie particular doctrines advanced by this reformer. Some writers maintain, that he dijfer- ed from the popish church on points not considered by Prolesiants of the piesent day as important, or involving any peculiar religious 15th century.] the church of christ. 281 principles; and intimate that his condemnation is attributnble more to the influence of the Nominalists, his personal enemies, in the council of Constance, than to his heretical opinions.' The author- ity for this, however, is drawn from two sermons delivered before the council by liuss. Although he afterward met his fate with un- common fortitude, we might very well suppose, that belbre his trial and condemnation, his language would be of a conciliating lone, witliout impeaching his sincerity or firmness. It is certain, that he had deeply imbibed the sentiments of Wickliffe, had pul)licly de- fended his writings and opinions, and had become peculiarly ob- noxious to the clergy, by opposing the papal hierarchy, and ex- posing the corruption of the Church. "• The bishops," says Mos- heim, " togelher with the sacerdotal and monastic orders, were very sensible tliat tlieir honors and advantages, their credit and au- thority, were in the greatest danger of being reduced to notlnng, if this reformer should return again to his country, and continue to write and declaim against the clergy with the same freedom that he had formerly done. Hence they left no means unemployed to accomplish his ruin; they labored night and day, they formed plots, they bribed men in power, they used, in short, every method that could have any tendency to rid them of such a formidable adver- sary." Huss became the object of popish vindictivencss by de- claiming against the sale of indulgences; when John XXIll. pub- lished his bull against the king of Naples, and ordered a crusade against him. His principles were drawn from the writings of Wickiitfe, which had been translated into the Sclavonian tongue, and widely dispersed through the kingdom of Bohemia. The pope, Alexander V., alarmed by the jiropagation of tlu'se princi- ples, ordered the writings of VVicklillc to be publicly burnt, and those who defended them to be imprisoned. His successor, John, excommunicated Huss for this offense, and all his followers. In the year 1414, the council of Constance convened. Huss de- termined to obey with promptness, a citation to appear before it. From the emperor Sigisinund, he received a passport which pur- ported lo remove all impediments to his going to, remaining at, and returning from,tlie council.- As he pursued his journey towards Con- stance, he challenged his adversaries to meet him there. Having appeared liefore the council, he was required to renounce his er- rors. This he consented to do, when convinced that his opinions were not in accordance with the Word of God. The pope had given him an assurance of librrty and [irotection during his trial; but he was soon after seized in the gallery of the council chmbner, and imprisoned in a lonely monastery on the banks of the Rhine. Many sessions elapsed before the articles declaring the naluie of 'Moslieim's Ecclesiaslical History. *Ii Wiis expressed in tlie followinff lanffiinac : " Omni proraufi impedim- oremotOf traiiiire, slare, morari, el redirc libere pcrmUlulis sibique el sitis,'' &{c. 282 THE CHURCH OF CHiiisT. [15th centurj. his offenses were exhibited against him. In tlie tifleenth session of the council he was condemned for maintaining doctrines which are now received by all Protestant churches as strictly in accordance with the orthodox faith. It was ordered, " That he be degiaded from the priesthood, his books publicly burnt, and himself deliver- ed to the secular power," which, in tiie vernacular of popery, meant, to be committed to the flames. " That sentence," says a writer, " he heard without emotion. He immediately prayed for the pardon of his enemies. Tiie bisliops appointed by the council stripped him of his priestly garments, and put a mitre of paper on his head, on which devils vva^.re painted, with this inscription, ' A ring-leader of heretics.' The bisliops delivered him to the em- peror, and he delivered him to the duke of Bavaria." It was not until the nineteenth session that the safe-conduct given to him by Sigismund was decreed to be invalid. In the execution of the sentence, faggots were collected around him, and fire being ap- plied to them, he was soon consumed by the flames. " During his sufferings he sang a hymn, with so loud and cheeriul a voice, that he wasdislinctly heard through all the noise of the combustibles, and of the multitude. At last he uttered, "Jesus Christ, thou son of the living God, have mercy upon me!" His ashes were care- fully collected, and cast into the Rhine. Luther, more than a hun- dred years after, gave testimony to the excellency of his writings, by declaring, that he was the most rational expounder of the Scrip- ture he ever met with. "He seemed," says a recent popular wri- ter, "to enter more deeply than all who had gone before him into the essence of Christian truth." " The wicked have begun," said Huss, " by laying treacherous snares for the goosc.^ Instead of a goose, the truth will send forth eagles and keen-eyed falcons." Huss was the victim of popish bigotry and cruelty, be was an ac- ceptable sacrifice offered up at the shrine of Baal, but the blood of the martyr was the seed of the Church. Huss went to Constance under a safe-conduct from the emperor of Germany, and in violation of that pledge he was arrested, im- prisoned, and put to death, under a sentence of condemnation by a council of the Papal church. This was a practical illustration of the popish principle, which was the key-stone of the stupendous fabric of papal supremacy, that "The temporal powers are subor- dinate to the ecclesiastical." 2 But this violation of a pledged faith has been justified by a fundamental doctrine of the Romish church, that "No oath against the benefit of the Church is binding; all such oaths are perjuries." This is exjiressed in the body of the canon laws, and according to the inquisitorial directory of Gregory 'Tiie word " Huss'' in the Bohemian language, signifies " Goose.'' 'Coristitutioncs prinr,i|)nm onclosinsliris cnnslitiitionilius jio?i pranmlnrnt, seil obse- qnunlnr. (I)ecrnt.) " QiioBr'iniC]iin n priiifipilms in ordiiiilms vol in ew;iesiustici8 re- bus decretu iiivuiiiuntur, nulUus auclorilalis esse nioiisUaiilur.'' (Ideui.) loth century.] the church of christ. 283 IX., " They who were held hound to heretics are released from every obligation." In the Duect. Inquis. of Honorius III., it is de- clared, that " A heretic should not be paid what is due to him, on a promise even with an oath;" "all persons are forbidden to show any kinchiess to heretics*," "they must be sought after, and cor- rected, or exterminated;" and, tiiat " he is a heretic who ()[)poses the Roman chur'ch, and takes away its dignity; or who thinks dif- ferenlly fsom it coircerning any article of faith." The Direct. In- quis. of Innocent IV., gives authority to all irrquisitors "to compel secular magisti-ates to swear that they will keep the laws enacted against heretics." But it is unnecessar-y to multiply the authoi'ities which establish the principle, that a heretic, or one who differs from the Romish chur-ch concerrring any article of faith, is, ipso facto, an outlaw in the view of that church ; and is divested of all right, human and divine, without eitlier civil or ecclesiastical j)riv- ileges, and may be sought after, and corrected, or extei-minated.^ But the council of Constance avowed the principle, updn which it violated the pledge of safety Huss had received, and condemned him to the stake, that " he was unworthy, through his obstinate adherence to heresy, of any {)iivil("ge; and that neither faith nor pr'omise ought to be kept with him, by natural, divine, or human law, to (he prejudice of the Catholic (Papal) church." Tlie doc- trine is thus fully laid down by the council, and the ground of its proceeding placed beyond a doubt, " The holy Synod of Constance declar'es concerning every safe-conduct granted by the emperor, kings, and other temporal princes, to heretics, or pei'soirs accused of heresy, in hopes of reclaiming them, that it ought not to he of any prejudice to the Catholic; (Papal) church, or ecclesiastical ju- risdiction, nor to hinder but that such persons may and ought to be examined, judged, and punished, accor'ding as justice shall r'equire, if those hei'ciics shall refuse to revoke their eri'ors, although they shall have come to the place of judgment relying orr tlieir safe- conduct, and without which they would not have come thither; and the person who shall have promised them security, shall not, in this case, be olrliged to keep his promise, by whatever tie he may have been engaged, when he has done all that is in his power to do." But to descend to a later date — to the council of Trent, which was the last ecumenical council of the Church. Tliis convened in 1545, at a period when the principles of the Reformation were 'One nf the oraclos of tlio popish chiimh. ttie Irarnod cardinnl Rfllnrmine, says, that " Heretics are to lie dnslroyeri, root and Ijrancli, if il ran possibly bo done; but if it appear tiiat the Catiiohcs i Papist;-) are so few, ihil rbey cannot consislentiy with tlieir own salcty, atleinpt such a tliincr, then it is best in stich a case, to be quiet, lest, upon opposition made by the lier<.'ti<-s, Iho Catholics (Piipists) should be worst- ed." To this wise policy wo are to altril)nte the app;ircnt spirit of toleration which popery now e.xhibits It is the ti