always in communion with it, provided they might be allowed to live as they thought proper, without molestation or restraint. The latter affirmed, on the contrary, that the church of Rome had apostatized from Christ, was deprived of the Holy Spirit, and was, in reality, that whore of Babylon mentioned in the Revelation of St. John."

Sects a less

eminent kind.

XIV. Beside these famous sects, which made a great noise in the world, and drew after them multitudes from the bosom of a corrupt and supersti- nits of iss tious church, there were other religious factions The Pasagini. of lesser importance, which arose in Italy, and more especially in France, though they seem to have expired soon after their birth." In Lombardy, which was the principal. residence of the Italian heretics, there sprung up a very singular sect, known by the denomination of Pasaginians," and also by that of the Circumcised. Like the other sects already mentioned, they had the utmost aversion to the dominion and discipline of the church of Rome; but they were at the same time distinguished by two religious tenets that were peculiar to themselves. The first was a notion, that the observation of the law of Moses, in every thing except the offering of sacrifices, was obligatory upon Christians, in consequence of which they circumcised their followers, abstained from those meats, the use of which was prohibited under the Mosaic economy, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath. The second tenet that distinguished this sect was advanced in opposition to the doctrine of three persons in the divine nature; for the Pasaginians maintained that Christ was no more than the first and purest creature of God; nor will their adopting this opinion seem so surprising, if we consider the prodigious number of Arians that were scattered throughout Italy long before this period of time."

m Monetæ Summa contra Catharos et Valdenses, p. 406, 416, &c. They scem to have been also divided in their sentiments concerning the possession of worldly goods, as appears from the accounts of Stephanus de Borbone, in Echardi Scriptoribus Dominicanis, tom. i. p. 191. This writer divides the Waldenses into two classes; The poor men of Lyons, and The poor men of Lombardy. The former rejected and prohibited all sorts of possessions; the latter looked upon worldly possessions as lawful. This distinction may be also confirmed by several passages of other ancient authors.

n For an account of these obscurer sects, see Stephanus de Borbone, in Echardi Scriptoribus Dominicanis, tom. i. p. 191.

o The origin of the name pasagini, or pasagii, is not known.

p See F. Bonacursi Manifestatio hæresis Catharorum, in Luc. Dacherii Spicilegio, Veter. Scriptor. tom. i. p. 211, edit. nov. Gerhard. Bergamensis contra Catharos et Pasagios, in Lud. Anton. Muratorii Antiq. Ital. medii ævi, tom. v. p. 151.

xv. A set of fanatics, called Caputiati, from a singular kind of cap that was the badge of their faction, The Caputiati. infested the province of Burgundy, the diocess of Auxerre, and several other parts of France, in all which places they excited much disturbance among the people. They wore upon their caps a leaden image of the Virgin' Mary, and they declared publicly, that their purpose was to level all distinctions, to abrogate magistracy, to remove all subordination among mankind, and to restore that pri-mitive liberty, that natural equality that were the inestimable privileges of the first mortals. Hugo, bishop of Aux-1 erre, attacked these disturbers of human society in the proper manner, employing against them the force of arms, instead of arguments."

The sect of the Apostolics, whom St. Bernard opposed with such bitterness and fury, and who were so called, as that zealous abbot himself acknowledged, because they professed to exhibit in their lives and manners the piety and virtues of the holy apostles, were very different from the audacious heretics now mentioned. They were a clownish set of men, of the lowest birth, who gained their subsistence by bodily labour; and yet no sooner did they form themselves into a sect, than they drew after them a multitude of adherents of all ranks and orders. Their religious doctrine, as St. Bernard confesses, was free from error, and their lives and manners were irreproachable and exemplary. Yet they were reprehensible, on account of the following peculiarities; 1. They held it unlaw-. ful to take an oath. 2. They suffered their hair and their beards to grow to an enormous length, so that their aspect was inexpressibly extravagant and savage. 3. They preferred celibacy before wedlock, and called themselves the chaste brethren and sisters. Notwithstanding which, 4. Each man had a spiritual sister with him, after the manner of the apostles, with whom he lived in a domestic relation, lying in the same chamber with her, though not in the same bed."

XVI. In the council which was assembled at Rheims in the year 1148, and at which pope Eugenius III. headed natic. presided, a certain gentleman of the province of Bretagne, whose name was Eon, and whose brain

Eon, a wrong

q Jac. Le Bocuf, Memoires sur l'Histoire d'Auxerre, tom. i. p. 317.

r St. Bernardus, Sermo lxv. in Canticum, tom, iv. Opp. p. 1495, edit. Mabillon.

was undoubtedly disordered, was condemned for pretending to be the son of God. Having heard in the form that was used for exorcising malignant spirits, these words pronounced: per Eum, quiventurus est judicare vivos et mortuos, he concluded, from the resemblance that there was between the word Eum and his name, that he was the person who was to come and judge both quick and dead. This poor man should rather have been delivered over to the physicians, than placed in the list of heretics. He ended his days in a miserable prison, and left a considerable number of followers and adherents, whom persecution and death in the most dreadful forms could not persuade to abandon his cause, or to renounce an absurdity, which one would think could never have gained credit, but in such a place as bedlam. This remarkable example is sufficient to show, not only the astonishing credulity of the stupid multitude, but also how far even the rulers of the church were destitute of judgment, and strangers to the knowledge of true and genuine religion.

s Matth. Paris, Historia Major, p. 68. Gul. Neubrigensis, Historia rerum Anglicarum, lib. i. p. 50. Boulay, Historia Acad. Paris. tom, ii. p. 241.

THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

PART I.

EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

CONCERNING THE PROSPEROUS EVENTS THAT HAPPENED TO THE CHURCH DURING THIS CENTURY.

The state of

the northern

I. THOUGH the successors of Genghizkan, the mighty emperor of the Tartars, or rather of the Moguls, had carried their victorious arms through a great christianity in part of Asia, and having reduced China, India, parts of Asia and Persia under their yoke, involved in many and in China. calamities and sufferings the Christian assemblies which were established in these vanquished lands; yet we learn from the best accounts, and the most respectable authorities, that both in China and in the northern parts of Asia, the Nestorians continued to have a flourishing church, and a great number of adherents. The emperors of the Tartars and Moguls had no great aversion to the Christian religion; nay, it appears from authentic records, that several kings and grandees of these nations had either been instructed in the doctrines of the gospel by their ancestors, or were converted to Christianity by the ministry and exhortations of the Nestorians." But the religion of Mahomet, which was so adapted to flatter the passions of men, infected, by degrees, these noble converts, opposed with success the progress of the gospel, and in process of time triumphed over it so far, that not the least glimpse or remains of Christianity were to be perceived in the courts of these eastern princes.

a Gregor. Abulpharaius, Historia Dynastiar. p. 281.

b See Marc. Paul. Venetus, De Regionibus Oriental. lib. i. c. iv. lib. ii. c. vi. Haytho the Armenian's Histor. Oriental. cap, xix. p. 35, cap. xxiii. p. 39, cap. xxiv. p. 41. Jos. Sim. Assemanni Biblioth. Orient. Vatic. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 526. See particularly the Ecclesiastical History of the Tartars, published in Latin at Helmstadt, in the year 1741, in 4to.