soon be involved in the general fate of all sublunary things. But when these apprehensions were removed, things immediately put on a new face; the tottering temples were rebuilt, and the greatest zeal, attended with the richest and most liberal donations, was employed in restoring the sacred edifices to their former lustre, or rather in giving them new degrees of magnificence and beauty.

CHAPTER V.

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

I, THE state of the ancient sects, and particularly of the Nestorians and Monophysites, who resided in Asia

and Egypt under the Mahometan government, Ancient sects. was now much the same that it had been in the preceding century, neither extremely prosperous, nor absolutely miserable. The case of the Manichæans, or Pauli

cians, whom the Grecian emperors had banished Manichæans from the eastern provinces into Bulgaria and Thrace, was much more unhappy, on account of the perpetual conflicts they had to sustain with the Greeks, who persecuted and oppressed them with much keenness and animosity. The Greeks, as usually happens upon like occasions, laid the blame of their violent measures upon the Manichæans, whom they represented as a turbulent, perfidious, and sanguinary faction, and as the declared and inveterate enemies of the Grecian empire." This however is by no means to be received as an impartial state of the case; at least, it appears from many circumstances, that if the Manichæans were exasperated against the Greeks, their resentment was owing to the violent and injurious treatment they had received from them. The Grecian pontiffs and clergy were far from being destitute of the odious spirit of persecution; and it is certain that the emperors, instigated and set on by them, had exhausted the patience of the Paulicians by repeated cruelties and vexations, and alienated their affections by inflicting upon them, without interruption, a variety of punishments, such as banishment, confisca

in Anna Comnena Alexiados, lib. v. p. 105, lib. vi. p. 124, 126, 145.

tion of goods, and other such marks of severity and violence.

Alexus Comnenus, who, by his learning, was an ornament to the imperial sceptre, perceiving that the Manichæans were not to be vanquished, without the greatest difficulty, by the force of arms, and observing also that their numbers increased from day to day, both in Thrace and in the adjacent provinces, had recourse to the power of reason and argument to conquer their obstinacy, and spent whole days at Philippolis, in disputing with the principal doctors of that pernicious sect. Many of them yielded to the victorious arguments of this royal disputant, and his learned associates; nor is this to be so much wondered at, since their demonstrations were accompanied and enforced by rewards and punishments. Such of the Manichæans as retracted their errors, and returned to the bosom of the Greek church, were loaded with gifts, honours, and privileges, according to their respective stations; while such as stood firm against the reasoning of the emperor, were inhumanly condemned to perpetual imprisonment."

the Paulicians

11. Many of the Paulicians, either from a principle of zeal for the propagation of their opinions, or An account of from a desire of getting rid of the persecution and in Europe. oppression they suffered under the Grecian yoke, retired from Bulgaria and Thrace, and formed settlements in other countries. Their first migration was into Italy; from whence, in process of time, they sent colonies into almost all the other provinces of Europe, and formed gradually a considerable number of religious assemblies, who had adhered to their doctrine, and who were afterward persecuted with the utmost vehemence by the Roman pontiffs. It is difficult to fix the precise period of time when

n There is an ample and circumstantial account of this controversy between the emperor and the Manichæans in the work mentioned in the preceding note, lib. xiv. p. 338.

o See Lud. Ant. Muratori Autiquitat. Ital. medii ævi, tom. v. p. 83. Limborch, Historie Inquisitionis, p. 31. Thom. Aug. Richinii Dissertatio de Catharis, which is prefixed to the Summa B. Monetæ contra Catharos, p. 17, 18. We might also refer, upon this occasion, to Glab. Rodulph. Histor. lib. iii. cap. viii. to Matth. Paris, and other ancient writers. Certain Italian authors, and among others, Richini, seem unwilling to acknowledge, that the Paulicians arrived first in Italy, and proceeded from thence into the other provinces of Europe; aud maintain, on the contrary, that their first settlement was in France, and that from thence they came into Italy These writers look upon it as ignominious to their country, to be considered as the first European nation which fostered such a pernicious and impious sect in its bosom. Be that as it may,

the Paulicians began to take refuge in Europe; it is however undoubtedly certain from the most authentic testimonies, that a considerable number of the sect were about the middle of this century, settled in Lombardy, Insubria, and principally at Milan; and that many of them led a wandering life in France, Germany and other countries, where they captivated the esteem and admiration of the multitude, by their sanctimonious looks, and the uncommon air of piety which they put on with much affectation. In Italy they were called paterini, and cathari, or rather gazari, which latter appellation the Germans have preserved, with a small alteration only, which was proper to adapt it to the genius of their language." In France they were called Albigenses, from the town of Alby, in the Upper Languedoc, in Latin, Albigia. They were likewise called Bulgarians, in France, because they came from Bulgaria, and because the head of their sect resided in that country; as also Publicans, which was probably a corrupt pronunciation of Paulicians, and boni homines,or good men, with several other titles and epithets."

their hypothesis is favoured by Petr. de Marca himself, a Frenchman, who, in his Histoire de Berne, livr. viii. cap. xiv. p. 728, declares it as his opinion, that the Paulicians joined themselves to the Gallic armies that returned from the holy war in Palestine, by the province of Bulgaria, and were thus conducted into France. But that learned author alleges no proof to support this opinion; it appears, on the contrary, from the records of the Inquisition of Thoulouse, published by Limborch, and from other authentic pieces, that the Paulicians settled first in Sicily, Lombardy, Liguria, and the Milanese, and sent from thence their doctors and missionaries into France. See the Codex Tolosanus, p. 13, 14, 32, 68, 69, et passim. We learn also from the Code of Thoulouse, that the French Paulicians, who were called Albigenses, had no bishop to consecrate their anciani, such was the title they gave to their presbyters; so that such of them as were desirious of being placed in the order of presbyters, were obliged to repair to Italy, in order to their being regularly installed.

p The title of paterini, which was given to this sect in Italy, has been already explained in the second chapter of the second part of this century, sect. 13, note r. As to the term catharus, it was undoubtedly, when applied to the Paulicians, the same with gazarus, as I have elsewhere demonstrated. See Histor. Ord. Apostol. p. 367. The country which bore in this century the name of Gazaria, was what we now call the Lesser Tartary.

q That the Paulicians were called Albigenses in France, and were a sect entirely distinct from the Waldenses and other heretics, appears evidently from the Codex Inquisitionis Tolosone, already mentioned. They received this name from a town in Aquitain, called Albigia, or Alby, where their errors were condemned in a council held in the year 1176. See Chatel, Memoires de l'Histoire de Languedoc, p. 305. It is therefore a mistake, to consider the Albigenses as a sect so called from Alby's being the place of their birth, their residence, or the seat of their principal assembly; since the name was given them for no other reason than their having been condemned in a council held in that town. There were indeed several faulicians among the various sects of dissenters from the church of Rome and inhabited the country about Alby; and it is also true that the title of Albigenses is usually extended to all the heretics, of whatever sect or denomination they were, who dwelt in these parts.

r The learned Du Fresne, in his Glossarium Latin. medii ævi, tom. i. p. 1338, has proved in an ample manner, that the Paulicians were called in France Bulgares, and by a corrupt pronunciation of that word bougres. The same author, in his Observationes ad Villeharduini Historiam Constantinopolil. p. 169, has fully demonstrated that the names popolicani and publicani, that were imposed upon these Manichæans, were on

The Manichæans

to have been

III. The first religious assembly which the Paulicians had formed in Europe, is said to have been discoof Orleans seem vered at Orleans, in the year 1017, under the mystics. reign of Robert. A certain Italian lady is said to have been at the head of this sect; its principal members were twelve canons of the cathedral of Orleans, men eminently distinguished by their piety and learning, among whom Lisosius and Stephen held the first rank; and it was composed in general of a considerable number of citizens, who were far from being of the meanest condition. The impious doctrines professed by these canons, were discovered by a certain priest named Heribert, and by Arifastus, a Norman nobleman, upon which Robert assembled a council at Orleans, and employed the most effectual methods that could be thought of to bring these heretics to a better mind. But all his endeavours were to no purpose; this pernicious sect adhered obstinately to their principles, and hence they were at length condemned to be burnt alive."

It is difficult to come to a fixed determination with respect to the character and doctrine of these people; for when we examine matters attentively, we find that even their enemies acknowledged the sincerity of their piety; that they were blackened by accusations which were evidently false; and that the opinions for which they were punished, differ widely from the Manichæan system. As far as we can see into the case, it appears to us, that these pretended Manichæans of Orleans were a set of mystics, who looked with contempt upon all external worship, rejected all rites and ceremonies, and even the Christian sacraments, as destitute of any, even the least spiritual efficacy or virtue, placed the whole of religion in the internal contemplation of God, and the elevation of the soul to

more than a corruption of the term Pauliciani, ill pronounced. The appellation of boni homines, or los bos homes, as the southern French spoke at that time, was a title which the Paulicians attributed to themselves. See the Coder Inquisit. Tolesanæ, p. 22, 84, 95, &c. and more especially p. 131.

s The accounts that the ancient writers have given of these heretics, are collected by Boulay, in his Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. i. p. 364. Charl. Plessis D' Argentre. Collection. judicior. de novis erroribus, tom. i. p. 5. Jo. Launoy, De Scholis celebrioribus Caroli Magni, cap. xxiv. p. 90. The history of the synod of Orleans, in which this sect was condemned, is given by Luc. Dacherius, in his Spicileg. Veter. Scriptor. tom. i. p. 604.

t Basnage, in his Ilistoire des Eglises Reformees, tom. i. period iv. p. 97, and in his Hist. des Eglise, tom, ii. p. 1388, plead the cause of the canons of Orleans, but this learned and worthy man seeins to have been carried too far by his zeal for augmenting the number of those who have been martyrs to the truth,

divine and celestial things; and in their philosophical speculations concerning God, the Trinity, and the human soul, soared above the comprehension of the age in which they lived. A like set of men proceeded in vast numbers out of Italy in the following ages, spread like an inundation through all the European provinces, and were known in Germany under the name of the brethren of the free spirit, while they were distinguished in other countries by the appellation of beghards."

Another

sect converted

iv. We find in history another branch of this numerous sect, whose errors were not accompanied with the crimes that were laid to the charge of their bre- branch of that thren, and who were converted by a pathetic dis- by Gerhard. course that was addressed to them by Gerhard, bishop of Cambray and Arras, in an assembly of the clergy that was held in the last of these two cities, A. D. 1030. These honest mystics, who were equally remarkable for their docility and their ignorance, had received the doctrine they professed from the Italians, and particularly from a certain chimerical doctor, whose name was Gundulf. They maintained in general, according to their own confession, that the whole of religion consisted in the study of practical piety, and in a course of action conformable to the divine laws, and treated all external modes of worship with the utmost contempt. Their particular tenets may be reduced to the following heads. 1. They rejected baptism, and in a more especial manner, the baptism of infants, as a ceremony that was in no respect essential to salvation. 2. They rejected for the same reason the sacrament of the Lord's supper. 3. They denied that the churches were endowed with a greater degree of sanctity than private houses, or that they were more adapted to the worship of God than any other place. 4. They affirmed that the altars were to be considered in no other light than as heaps of stones, and were therefore unworthy of any marks of veneration or regard. 5. They disapproved of the use of incense and consecrated oil in services of a religious nature. 6. They looked upon the use of bells in the church

u We shall have occasion to give a fuller account of these fanatics in the history of the thirteenth century, in which they were first drawn from their obscurity, and condemned in many councils, especially in Germany. It is, however, certain, that they had a clandestine existence long before that period, and that they propagated their tenets secretly in several places. Their doctrine resembles, in some particulars, that of the Manichæans; and hence it was natural for the ignorant divines of the age in which they lived, to consider them as a branch of that pernicious sect.