PART 11.

CENT. VI. arate too much the two natures in Christ; and the Scythian monks, who seconded this design, and to whom the rise of this controversy is principally to be imputed, maintained the affirmative of this nice and difficult question. Others asserted, on the contrary, that this manner of speaking was by no means to be adopted, since it bordered upon the erroneous expressions and tenets of the theopaschites, who composed one of the sects into which the eutychians were subdivided." This latter opinion was confirmed by Hormisdas the Roman pontiff, to whom the Scythian monks had appealed in vain ; but this, instead of allaying the heat of the present controversy, only added new fuel to the flame. John II. who was one of the successors of Hormisdas, approved the proposition which the latter had condemned; and confirming the opinion of the Scythian monks, exposed the decisions of the papal oracle to the laughter of the wise; his sentence was afterward approved by the fifth general council; and thus peace was restored in the church by the conclusion of these unintelligible disputes."

With the question now mentioned, there was another closely and intimately connected, namely,

The deacon Victor, and those who opposed the Scythian monks, ●xpressed their opinion in the following proposition, viz. one person of the Trinity suffered in the flesh. Both sides received the council of Chalcedon, acknowledged two natures in Christ, in opposition to Eutyches; and only one person in opposition to Nestorius; and yet, by a torrent of jargon, and a long chain of unintelligible syllogisms, the Scythian monks accused their adversaries of nestorianism, and were accused by them of the eutychian heresy.

w See Norisii Historia controversia de uno ex Trinitate passo, tom. iii. opp. p. 771. The ancient writers who mention this controversy, call the monks who set it on foot, Scythians. But La Croze, in his Thesaur. Epist. tom. iii. p. 189, imagines that the country of these monks was Egypt, and not Scythia; and this conjecture is supported by reasons which carry in them, at least, a high degree of probability.

PART II.

whether the person of Christ could be considered as CENT. VI. compounded. Of this question the Scythian monks maintained the affirmative, and their adversaries the negative.

CHAPTER IV.

CONCERNING THE RITES AND CEREMONIES USED IN THE CHURCH
DURING THIS CENTURY.

plied.

L IN this century the cause of true religion sunk Rites multiapace, and the gloomy reign of superstition extended itself in proportion to the decay of genuine piety. This lamentable decay was supplied by a multitude of rites and ceremonies. In the east the nestorian and eutychian controversies gave occasion to the invention of various rites and external institutions, which were used as marks to distin. guish from each other the contending parties. The western churches were loaded with rites by Greg. ory the Great, who had a marvellous fecundity of genius in inventing, and an irresistible force of eloquence in recommending superstitious observ. ances. Nor will this appear surprising to those who know, that in the opinion of this pontiff, the words of the sacred writings were images of mysterious and invisible things; for such as embrace this chimerical system will easily be led to express all the doctrines and precepts of religion by external rites and symbols. Gregory indeed is worthy of praise in this, that he did not pretend to force others to the observance of his inventions; though this, perhaps, was as much owing to a want of power, as to a principle of moderation.

PART 11.

of them inves. tigated.

CENT. VI. II. This prodigious augmentation of rites and ceremonies rendered an augmentation of doctors The occasions and interpreters of these mysteries indispensably necessary. Hence a new kind of science arose, which had for its object, the explication of these ceremonies, and the investigation of the causes and circumstances from whence they derived their origin. But the most of those who entered into these researches, never went to the fountain head, to the true sources of these idle inventions. They endeavoured to seek their origin in reason and Christianity; but in this they deceived themselves, or at least deluded others, and delivered to the world their own fancies, instead of letting them into the true causes of things. Had they been acquainted with the opinions and customs of remote antiquity, or studied the pontifical law of the Greeks and Romans, they had come at the true origin of many institutions, which were falsely looked upon as venerable and sacred.

ship.

tration of the

Public wor III. The public worship of God was as yet celebrated by every nation in its own language; but was enlarged, from time to time, by the addition of various hymns, and other things of that nature, which were considered as proper to enliven devotion by the power of novelty. Gregory the Great The adminis- prescribed a new method of administering the Lord's eucharist. supper, with a magnificent assemblage of pompous ceremonies; this institution of his was called the canon of the mass; and if any are unwilling to give it the name of a new appointment, they must at least acknowledge that it was a considerable augmentation of the ancient canon for celebrating the eucharist, and occasioned a remarkable change in the administration of that ordinance. Many ages, however, passed before this Gregorian canon was adopted by all the Latin churches.*

* See Theod. Chr. Lilienthal, De canone missa Gregoriano.

We omit men

PART II.

Baptism, except in cases of necessity, was ad- CENT. VI. ministered only on great festivals. tioning, for the sake of brevity, the litanies that Baptism. were addressed to the saints, the different sorts of supplications, the stations, or assemblies of Gregorv, the forms of consecration, and other such institutions, which were contrived in this century to excite a species of external devotion, and to engage the outward senses in religious worship. An inquiry into these matters would of itself deserve to be made the subject of a separate work.

IV. There was an incredible number of temples erected in honour of the saints, during this century, both in the eastern and western provinces. The places set apart for public worship were already very numerous; but it was now that christians first began to consider these sacred edifices, as the means of purchasing the favour and protection of the saints, and to be persuaded that these departed spirits defended and guarded, against evils and calamities of every kind, the provinces, lands, cities, and villages, in which they were honoured with temples. The number of these temples were almost equalled by that of the festivals, which were now observed in the christian church, and many of which seem to have been instituted upon a pagan model. To those that were celebrated in the preceding century, were now added the festival of the purification of the blessed Virgin, invented with a design to remove the uneasiness of the heathen converts on account of the loss of their lupercalia, or feasts of Pan, which had been formerly observ ed in the month of February, the festival of the immaculate conception, the day set apart to com memorate the birth of St. John, and others less worthy of mention.

CHAPTER V.

CONCERNING THE DIVISIONS AND HERESIES THAT TROUBLED THE'
CHURCH DURING THIS CENTURY.

CENT. VI.

The remains of the ancient heresies.

1. THE various sects which had fomented divisPAST 1 ions among christians in the early ages of the church, were far from being effectually suppressed or totally extirpated. Though they had been persecuted and afflicted with an infinite diversity of trials and calamities, yet they still subsisted, and continued to excite dissensions and tumults in many. Manicheans. places. The manicheans are said to have gained such a degree of influence among the Persians, as to have corrupted even the son of Cabades, the monarch of that nation, who repaid their zeal in making proselytes with a terrible massacre, in which numbers of that impious sect perished in the most dreadful manner. Nor was Persia the only country which was troubled with the attempts of the manicheans to spread their odious doctrine; other provinces of the empire were undoubtedly infected with their errors, as we may judge from the book that was written against them by Heraclian, Semipelagi bishop of Chalcedon. In Gaul and Africa, dis

ans.

Donatists.

sensions of a different kind prevailed; and the controversy between the semipelagians and the disciples of Augustin continued to divide the western churches.

II. The donatists enjoyed the sweets of freedom and tranquillity, as long as the Vandals reigned in Africa; but the scene was greatly changed with respect to them, when the empire of these barbarians was overturned in the year 534. They however still remained in a separate body, and not only held

y See Photius, Biblioth. Cod. cxiv. p. 291.