PART I. trines of the gospel. These doctors indeed affect- CENT. VL ed, generally speaking, a high degree of moderation and prudence, and for the most part, modified their expressions in such a manner, as to give to the pagan system an evangelical aspect, extremely adapted to deceive the unwary, as the examples of Chalcidius" and Alexander of Lycopolis abund The religion of Chalcidius has been much disputed among the learned. Cave seems inclined to rank him among the christian writers, though he expresses some uncertainty about the matter. Huet, G. J. Vossius, Fabricius, and Beausobre, decide with somewhat more assurance that Chalcidius was a christian. Some learned men have maintained on the contrary, that many things in the writings of this sage entitle him to a place among the pagan philosophers. Our learned author, in his notes to his Latin translation of Cudworth's Intellectual System, and in a Dissertation de turbata per recentiores Platonicos Ecclesia, lays down an hypothesis, which holds the middle way between these two ex, tremes. He is of opinion that Chalcidius neither rejected nor embraced the whole system of the christian doctrine, but selected out of the religion of Jesus and the tenets of Plato, a body of divinity, in which however, platonism was predominant; and that he was one of those synchretist or eclectic philosophers, who abounded in the fourth and fifth centuries, and who attempted the uniting paganism and Christianity into one motley system. This account of the matter, however, appears too vague to the celebrated author of the Critical History of Philosophy, M. Brucker. This excellent writer agrees with Dr. Mosheim in this, that Chalcidius followed the motley method of the eclectic platonists, but does not see any thing in this inconsistent with his having publicly professed the christian religion. For the question is not, whether this philosopher was a sound and orthodox christian, which M. Brucker denies him to have been, but whether he had abandoned the pagan rites, and made a public profession of Christianity; and this our philosophical historian looks upon as evident. For though, in the commentary upon Plato's Timeus, Chalcidius teaches several doctrines that seem to strike at the foundations of our holy religion, yet the same may be said of Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus, Arnobius, and others, who are nevertheless, reckoned among the professors of Christianity. The reader will find a most excellent view of the different opinions concerning the religion of Chalcidius, in the Hist. Critica Philosophiæ, Bruckeri, tom. iii. p. 472— 485. The truth of the matter seems to be this, that the eclectics, before Christianity became the religion of the state, enriched their system from PART I. CENT. VI. antly testify. Some of them however were less modest, nay, carried their audacious efforts against Christianity so far as to revile it publicly. Damascius, in the life of Isodorus, and in other places, casts upon the christians the most ignominious aspersions; Simplicius, in his illustrations of the aristotelian philosophy, throws out several malignant insinuations against the doctrines of the gospel ; and the Epicheiremato of Proclus, written expressly against the disciples of Jesus, were universally read, and were, on that account, accurately refuted by Philoponus. All this shows, that many of the magistrates, who were witnesses of these calumnious attempts against the gospel, were not so much christians in reality, as in appearance; otherwise they would not have permitted the slanders of these licentious revilers to pass without correction of restraint. The sufferings of the several plac e& III. Notwithstanding the extensive progress of christians in the gospel, the christians, even in this century, suffered grievously, in several places, from the savage cruelty and bitterness of their enemies. In Britain, the Anglo Saxons, who were masters of that kingdom, involved a multitude of its ancient the gospel, but ranged themselves under the standards of Plato; and that they repaired to those of Christ, without any considerable change of their system, when the examples and authority of the emperors rendered the profession of the christian religion a matter of prudence, as well as its own excellence rendered it most justly a matter of choice. • Alexauder wrote a treatise against the manichæans, which is published by Combefis, in the second tome of his Auctor. Noviss. Biblioth. PP. Photius, Combefis, and our learned Cave looked upon Alexander as a proselyte to Christianity. But Beausobre has demonstrated the contrary. See Histoire de Manicheisme, part ii, Discours Preliminaire, § 13, p. 236. Photius, Bibliothecæ Cod. ccxlii. p. 1027. See J. A. Fabricii Bibliotheca Græca, vol. iii. p. 522. PART I inhabitants, who professed Christianity, in the CENT. VI. deepest distresses, and tormented them with all that variety of suffering, which the injurious and malignant spirit of persecution could invent. The Huns, in their irruption into Thrace, Greece, and the other provinces, during the reign of Justinian, treated the christians with great barbarity; not so much, perhaps, from an aversion to Christianity, as from an hostile spirit of hatred against the Greeks, and a desire of overturning and destroying their empire. The face of affairs was totally changed in Italy, about the middle of this century, by a grand revolution which happened under the reign of Justinian I. This emperor, by the arms of Narses, overturned the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, which had subsisted ninety years; and subdued all Italy under his dominion. The state of things however which this revolution introduced, was not of a very long duration; for the Lombards, a fierce and warlike people, headed by Alboinus their king, and joined by several other German nations, issued forth from Pannonia, in the year 568, under the reign of Justin, invaded Italy; and having made themselves masters of the whole country, except Rome and Ravenna, erected a new kingdom at Ticinum. Under these new tyrants, who, to the natural ferocity of their characters, added an aversion to the religion of Jesus, the christians in the beginning, endured calamities of every kind. But the fury of these savage usurpers gradually subsid ed; and their manners contracted, from time to time, a milder character. Autharis, the third monarch of the Lombards, embraced Christianity, as it was professed by the arians, in the year 587. But his successor Agilulf, who married his widow Theudelinda, was persuaded by that princess to Usserii Index Chronol. Antiquit. Eccles. Britann. subjectus ad A. 508, p. 1123. CENT. VL abandon arianism, and to adopt the tenets of the PART I. nicene catholics." But the calamities of the christians, in all other countries, were light and inconsiderable in comparison of those which they suffered in Persia under Chosroes, the inhuman monarch of that nation. This monster of impiety aimed his audacious and desperate efforts against Heaven itself; for he publicly declared, that he would make war not only upon Justinian, but also upon the God of the christians; and in consequence of this blasphemous menace, he vented his rage against the followers of Jesus in the most barbarous manner, and put multitudes of them to the most cruel and ignominious deaths. • Paul. Diacon. De gestis Longobardorum, lib. ii. cap. ii. xxvii. p. 219, 231, edit. Lindenbrogii. Muratorii Antiq. Italiæ, tom. i. p. 14, tom. ñ. p. 297. Giannone, Histoire de Naples, tom. i. p. 302. Procopius, De bello Persico, lib. ii. cap. xxvi. PART II. INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. CONCERNING THE STATE OF LETTERS AND PHILOSOPHY DURING PART II. letters in the L. THE incursions of the barbarous nations into CENT. VI. the greatest part of the western provinces, were extremely prejudicial to the interests of learning The state of and philosophy, as must be known to all who have west. any acquaintance with the history of these unhappy times. During these tumultuous scenes of desolation and horror, the liberal arts and sciences would have been totally extinguished, had they not found a place of refuge, such as it was, among the bishops and the monastic orders. Here they assembled their scattered remains, and received a degree of culture which just served to keep them from perishing. Those churches, which were distinguished by the name of cathedrals, had schools erected under their jurisdiction, in which the bishop or a certain person appointed by him, instructed the youth in the seven liberal arts, as a preparatory introduction to the study of the scriptures." Persons of both sexes, who had devoted themselves to the monastic life, were obliged, by the founders of their respective orders, to employ daily a certain Fleury, Discours sur l'Histoire Eccles. depuis l'an 600, &c. § 21, p. 56, tom. xiii. de l'Histoire Eccles. Histoire Litter. de la France, tom. iii. Intr. § 32, p. 12. Herm. Conringii Antiq. Academicæ, p. 66—167, edit. Heummann. |