CHAP. ed her bosom to foreigners of every climate and religion. LIV. Under the Byzantine standard, the Paulicians were often Persecu tion of the Albigeois A. D. 1200, &c. transported to the Greek provinces of Italy and Sicily; in peace and war they freely conversed with strangers and natives, and their opinions were silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and the kingdoms beyond the Alps.28 It was soon discovered, that many thousand Catholics of every rank, and of either sex, had embraced the Manichæan heresy; and the flames which consumed twelve canons of Orleans, was the first act and signal of persecution. The Bulgarians,oo a name so innocent in its origin, so odious in its application, spread their branches over the face of Europe. United in common hatred of idolatry and Rome, they were connected by a form of episcopal and presbyterian government; their various sects were discriminated by some fainter or darker shades of theology; but they generally agreed in the two principles, the contempt of the old testament, and the denial of the body of Christ, either on the cross or in the eucharist. A confession of simple worship and blameless manners is extorted from their enemies; and so high was their standard of perfection, that the encreasing congregations were divided into two classes of disciples, of those who practised, and of those who aspired. It was in the country of the Albigeois,30 in the southern provinces of France, that the Paulicians were most deeply implanted; and the same vicissitudes of martyrdom and revenge which had been displayed in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, were repeated in the thirteenth 28 The introduction of the Paulicians into Italy and France, is amply discussed by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italiæ medii Evi, tom. v. dissert. lx. p. 81... 152), and Mosheim (p. 379...382. 419...422). Yet both have overlooked a curious passage of William the Appulian, who clearly describes them in a battle between the Greeks and Normans, A. D. 1040 (in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 256): Cum Græcis aderant, quidem quos pessimus error, Fecerat amentes, et ab ipso nomen habebant. But he is so ignorant of their doctrine as to make them a kind of Sabellians or Patripassians. 29 Bulgari, Boulgres, Bougres, a national appellation, has been applied by the French as a term of reproach to usurers and unnatural sinners. The Paterini, or Patelini, has been made to signify a sinooth and flattering hypocrite, such as l'Avocat Patelin of that original and pleasant farce (Ducange, Gloss. Latinitat. medii et infimi Ævi). The Manichæans were likewise named Cathari, or the pure, by corruption, Gazari, &c. 30 Of the laws, crusade, and persecution against the Albigeois, a just, though general idea, is expressed by Mosheim (p. 477...481). The detail may be found in the ecclesiastical historians, ancient and modern, Catholics and Protestants; and among these Fleury is the most impartial and moderate, century on the banks of the Rhône. The laws of the Eastern CHAP. emperors were revived by Frederic the second. The insur LIV. gents of Tephrice were represented by the barons and cities of Languedoc; Pope Innocent III. surpassed the sanguinary fame of Theodora. It was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes of the Crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far excelled by the founders of the inquisition; 31 an office more adapted to confirm, than to refute, the belief of an evil principle. The visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or Albigeois, were extirpated by fire and sword; and the bleeding remnant escaped by flight, concealment, or catholic conformity. But the invincible spirit which they had kindled still lived and breathed in the Western world. In the state, in the church, and even in the cloister, a latent succession was preserved of the disciples of St. Paul; who protested against the tyranny of Rome, embraced the bible as the rule of faith, and purified their creed from all the visions of the Gnostic theology. The struggles of Wickliff in England, of Huss in Bohemia, were premature and ineffec tual; but the names of Zuinglius, Luther, and Calvin, are pronounced with gratitude as the deliverers of nations. quences of formation. A philosopher, who calculates the degree of their merit Character and the value of their reformation, will prudently ask from and conse what articles of faith, above or against our reason, they have the reenfranchised the Christians; for such enfranchisement is doubtless a benefit so far as it may be compatible with truth and piety. After a fair discussion we shall rather be surprised by the timidity, than scandalised by the freedom of our first reformers. With the Jews, they adopted the belief and defence of all the Hebrew scriptures, with all their prodigies, from the garden of Eden to the visions of the prophet Daniel; and they were bound like the Catholics, to justify against the Jews the abolition of a divine law. In the great mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation the refor 31 The Acts (Liber Sententiarum) of the Inquisition of Tholouse (A. D. 1307...1323) have been published by Limborch (Amstelodami, 1692), with a previous History of the Inquisition in general. They deserved a more learned and critical editor. As we must not calumniate even Satan, or the Holy Office, I will observe, that of a list of criminals which fills nineteen folio pages, only fifteen men and four women were delivered to the secular arm. 32 The opinions and proceedings of the reformers are exposed in the second part of the general history of Mosheim: but the balance, which he has held with so clear an eye, and so steady an hand, begins to incline in favour of his Lutheran brethren. LIV. CHAP. mers were severely orthodox: they freely adopted the theology of the four, or the six first councils; and with the Athanasian creed, they pronounced the eternal damnation of all who did not believe the Catholic faith. Transubstantiation, the invisible change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, is a tenet that may defy the power of argument and pleasantry; but instead of consulting the evidence of their senses, of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first protestants were entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the words of Jesus in the institution of the sacrament. Luther maintained a corporeal, and Calvin a real, presence of Christ in the eucharist; and the opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more than a spiritual communion, a simple memorial, has slowly prevailed in the reformed churches.33 But the loss of one mystery was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines of original sin, redemption, faith, grace, and predestination, which have been strained from the epistles of St. Paul. These subtle questions had most assuredly been prepared by the fathers and schoolmen; but the final improvement and popular use may be attributed to the first reformers, who enforced them as the absolute and essential terms of salvation. Hitherto the weight of supernatural belief inclines against the Protestants; and many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God, than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant. Yet the services of Luther and his rivals are solid and important: and the philosopher must own his obligations to these fearless enthusiasts.34 I. By their hands the lofty fabric of superstition, from the abuse of indulgences to the intercession of the Virgin, has been levelled with the ground. Myriads of both sexes of the monastic profession were restored to the liberty and labours of social life. An hierarchy of saints and angels, of imperfect and subordinate deities, were stripped of their temporal power, and reduced to the 33 Under Edward VI. our reformation was more bold and perfect: but in the fundamental articles of the church of England, a strong and explicit declaration against the real presence was obliterated in the original copy, to please the people, or the Lutherans, or Queen Elizabeth (Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 82. 128. 302). 34"Had it not been for such men as Luther and myself," said the fanatic Whiston to Halley the philosopher, "you would now be kneeling before an "image of St. Winnifred." LIV. enjoyment of celestial happiness: their images and relics CHAP. were banished from the church; and the credulity of the people was no longer nourished with the daily repetition of miracles and visions. The imitation of Paganism was supplied by a pure and spiritual worship of prayer and thanksgiving, the most worthy of man, the least unworthy of the Deity. It only remains to observe, whether such sublime simplicity be consistent with popular devotion; whether the vulgar, in the absence of all visible objects, will not be inflamed by enthusiasm, or insensibly subside in languor and indifference. II. The chain of authority was broken, which restrains the bigot from thinking as he pleases, and the slave from speaking as he thinks: the popes, fathers, and councils, were no longer the supreme and infallible judges of the world; and each Christian was taught to acknowledge no law but the scriptures, no interpreter but his own conscience. This freedom however was the consequence, rather than the design, of the reformation. The patriot reformers were ambitious of succeeding the tyrants whom they had dethroned. They imposed with equal rigour their creeds and confessions; they asserted the right of the magistrate to punish heretics with death. The pious or personal animosity of Calvin proscribed in Servetus35 the guilt of his own rebellion;36 and the flames of Smithfield, in which he was afterwards consumed, had been kindled for the Anabaptists by the zeal of Cranmer.37 The nature of the tyger was the same, but he was gradually deprived of his teeth and fangs. A spiritual and temporal kingdom was possessed by the 35 The article of Servet in the Dictionnaire Critique of Chauffepié, is the best account which I have seen of this shameful transaction. See likewise the Abbé d'Artigny, Nouveaux Memoires d'Histoire, &c. tom. ii. p. 55... 154. 36 I am more deeply scandalized at the single execution of Servetus, than at the hecatombs which have blazed in the Auto da Fes of Spain and Portugal. 1. The zeal of Calvin seems to have been envenomed by personal malice, and perhaps envy. He accused his adversary before their common enemies, the judges of Vienna, and betrayed, for his destruction, the sacred trust of a private correspondence. 2. The deed of cruelty was not varnished by the pretence of danger to the church or state. In his passage through Geneva, Servetus was an harmless stranger, who neither preached, nor printed, nor made proselytes. 3 A Catholic inquisitor yields the same obedience which he requires, but Calvin violated the golden rule of doing as he would be done by ; a rule which I read in a moral treatise of Isocrates (in Nicole, tom. i. p. 93, edit Battie), four hundred years before the publication of the gospel. A aCXOVTES VO' έτερων οργίζεσθε, ταυτα τοις αλλοις μη ποιειτε. 37 See Burnet, vol. ii. p. 84...86. The sense and humanity of the young king were oppressed by the authority of the primate. VOL. VII. K LIV. CHAP. Roman pontiff: the Protestant doctors were subjects of an humble rank, without revenue or jurisdiction. His decrees were consecrated by the antiquity of the Catholic church: their arguments and disputes were submitted to the people; and their appeal to private judgment was accepted beyond their wishes, by curiosity and enthusiasm. Since the days of Luther and Calvin, a secret reformation has been silently working in the bosom of the reformed churches; many weeds of prejudice were eradicated; and the disciples of Erasmus 3 diffused a spirit of freedom and moderation. The liberty of conscience has been claimed as a common benefit, an inalienable right:39 the free governments of Holland 40 and England11 introduced the practice of toleration; and the narrow allowance of the laws has been enlarged by the prudence and humanity of the times. In the exercise, the mind has understood the limits, of its powers, and the words and shadows that might amuse the child can no longer satisfy his manly reason. The volumes of controversy are overspread with cobwebs: the doctrine of a Protestant church is far removed from the knowledge or belief of its private members; and the forms of orthodoxy, the articles of faith, are subscribed with a sigh or a smile by the modern clergy. Yet the friends of Christianity are alarmed at the boundless impulse of enquiry and scepticism. The predictions of the Catholics are accomplished: the web of mystery is unravelled by the Arminians, Arians, and Socinians, whose numbers must not be computed from their separate congregations. And the pillars of revelation are 38 Erasmus may be considered as the father of rational theology. After a slumber of an hundred years, it was revived by the Arminians of Holland, Grotius, Limborch, and Le Clerc in England by Chillingworth the latitudinarians of Cambridge (Burnet, Hist. of own Times, vol. i. p. 261...268. octavo edition), Tillotson, Clarke, Hoadley, &c. 39 I am sorry to observe, that the three writers of the last age, by whom the rights of toleration have been so nobly defended, Bayle, Leibnitz, and Locke, are all laymen and philosophers. 40 See the excellent chapter of Sir William Temple on the religion of the United Provinces. I am not satisfied with Grotius (de Rebus Belgicis, Annal. 1. i. p. 13, 14. edit. in 12mo), who approves the Imperial laws of persecution, and only condemns the bloody tribunal of the inquisition. 41 Sir William Blackstone (Commentaries, vol. iv. p. 53, 54.) explains the law of England as it was fixed at the Revolution. The exceptions of Papist, and of those who deny the Trinity, would still leave a tolerable scope for persecution, if the national spirit were not more effectual than an hundred statutes. |