identify the very idea of Ecclesiastical history with the work of Baronius.

At all events, for full half a century, nothing but these continuations and abridgments was attempted by writers of that communion. They were content to present a bare statement of facts, for the most part grievously distorted by party prejudice, without endeavouring to treat their subject in a way calculated to inform the understanding or affect the heart. Till the middle of the seventeenth century Church-history may fairly be said to have remained stationary at the point to which it had been conducted by Baronius. The work' of ANTOINE GODEAU, bishop of Vence, which was published in 1653, was the first which exhibited any new features. The "Histoire de l'Eglise 2" of this amiable writer,

1 Histoire de l'Eglise par Messire Antoine Godeau, Evesque et Seigneur de Vence. I use the fourth edition (1672); the first was published in 1653.

2 Le principal (de ses ouvrages) est son Histoire Ecclesiastique, en trois volumes en folio, dont le premier parut en 1653, qui contiennent l'histoire des huit premiers siècles. Il avoit travaillé à la continuation de cette histoire, et ses memoires sont entre les mains d'un Evêque de France; mais comme ils ne sont pas achevez, on ne les a point donnez au public. On est obligé à M. Godeau d'avoir le premier donné en François une Histoire Ecclesiastique, exacte, fidele, complete, et agréable à lire quoique depuis lui plusieurs habiles gens aient travaillé sur le même sujet, l'histoire de M. Godeau a, et aura toûjours, son mérite, que les années ni les autres histoires

was undoubtedly a step in its progress. Though he adhered pretty closely to the method of Baronius, and was no doubt chiefly indebted to him for his materials, his conception of his subject was in some degree original, and his work was distinguished by some important peculiarities. It bore the impress of the author's mind, and was accordingly religious, moderate, and candid. Though written to exhibit a popular view of the subject, and excluding therefore inquiries interesting only to scholars, it probably exercised considerable influence on the future cultivation of Church-history. It seems to possess the merit of having introduced to the Roman Catholics a peculiarity which the Centuriators had long before

1

n'effaceront point. Du Pin, Nouvelle Bibliothèque, tom. xvii. p. 287. It is a dangerous thing to make predictions: the work of Godeau has been long superseded and forgotten. It is said, that the fidelity of his first volume exposed the author to the charge of heresy; and that the intelligible threats of a powerful ecclesiastic induced him to write the remainder of his work with less impartiality. Schmid. Supplem. Sagittar. Introd. p. 212. The good bishop was highly celebrated in his day for his devotional and poetical writings. An envious critic, however, ventured to question his right to a very elevated position on Parnassus. The passage in which Du Pin mentions this unreasonable conduct is worth transcribing. "Malgré la grande reputation qu'ont eû ses ouvrages, il s'est trouvé un homme assez temeraire pour soûtenir que M. Godeau n'avoit aucun goût pour la poësie, dans un libelle imprimé sous ce titre aussi injurieux au charactère Episcopal qu'à la personne de M. Godeau, Godellus utrum Poëta ?" Ibid. p. 288.

made familiar to Protestants, and first shown them how greatly the history of God's dealings with his Church is calculated to minister to the personal edification of the believer.

During this period, however, the Protestants showed no greater activity than the Roman Catholics. The condition of Church-history among the Lutherans continued much as I have already described it. Theology among them had become entirely scholastic, and they had lost all taste for historical investigation. The reformed branch of the Protestant body, having little sympathy with antiquity, had hitherto contributed little to the cultivation of Ecclesiastical studies. The work of

1

1 Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ Novi Testamenti Enneas, seu Pars Prima. Qua res Christianorum, Judæorum, Gentilium, Muhammedanorum, juxta novem, post natum Christum, primorum Seculorum seriem, breviter, succincte et aphoristice primo proponuntur ; fusius deinde explicantur: capita etiam doctrinæ, tum veræ, per commodam et luculentam, uniuscujusque seculi Συμβίβασιν ; tum falsæ, per ἔλεγχον subjiciuntur, sicque ad multiplicem usum, necessarium rerum Ecclesiasticarum notitiam applicantur. Authore Joh. Henrico Hottingero, Tigurino. Hanoviæ, anno 1655. This is the title of the first volume, which contains the history of the first nine centuries. The second volume comprises the tenth and eleventh; the third, the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth; and the remaining six volumes come down to the Council of Trent. It is in small octavo, and has never been reprinted. The brevity of the earlier, compared with the later part of the work, has led to an opinion, that the author gradually changed his plan. Schmid. Supplem. Sagittar. Introd. p. 199.

JOHN HENRY HOTTINGER, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Zurich, which appeared between 1655 and 1667, was the first written by a member of that communion, which displayed an extensive and intimate acquaintance with the materials of Church-history. Even this treated but briefly of the events of the first fourteen centuries, and was minute only when it approached the period of the Reformation. But the writer has deservedly acquired distinction as one of the earliest who applied oriental learning to the illustration of the history of the Church. The learned Calvinists of France, whose studies lay in this direction, were engaged chiefly in the defence of the Presbyterian discipline. Some of them, as Rivet, Blondel, and Daillé, were men of great acuteness and considerable erudition, whose writings undoubtedly tended to the improvement of Ecclesiastical criticism, and secured for them the more equivocal praise of founding an antipatristic school. But they seem to have considered it as their vocation not to construct, but to demolish. They produced at most but dissertations and compendiums; and as yet had given to the world no memorable work on Ecclesiastical History.

ADVANCEMENT OF

SECTION II.

FROM 1667 to 1715.

ECCLESIASTICAL

LEARNING-BENEDICTINES

OF ST. MAUR-MABILLON-RISE OF THE GALLICAN SCHOOL OF CHURCH-HISTORY - MAIMBOURG-NATALIS ALEXANDER-DU PIN-PAGI-TILLEMONT - FLEURY ANGLICAN SCHOOL OF CHURCH-HISTORY-CAVE-DECLINE OF ECCLESIASTICAL LEARN

ING IN ENGLAND-BINGHAM-LE SUEUR-F. SPANHEIM-REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES-J. BASNAGE-S. BASNAGE -CONDITION OF ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE IN GERMANYIMPROVED TOWARDS THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY -ARNOLD-THOMASIUS--LE CLERC-ESTIMATE OF THE PROGRESS OF CHURCH-HISTORY DURING THIS PERIOD.

We have now to notice a state of things very different to that of which we had to complain at the conclusion of the last section. The obstacles which

had hitherto impeded the progress of Church-history rapidly pass away, and we have to trace its advance towards a much higher degree of perfection than it had yet attained. The successful cultivation of the study of the Christian antiquities had gradually prepared the way for this improvement. Hospinian had early directed the attention of the Protestants to this branch of Ecclesiastical knowledge: and in the former half of the seventeenth century it was zealously cultivated by several distinguished scholars in communion with the church of Rome.