Jerome, that we are told it was compiled.

Heresies had had time to multiply, and more than fifty were enumerated as existing in the fifth century.

cesses, and near the banks of the Rhone, among a sequestered and almost unknown people, whom the general desolation left untouched in their seclusion and poverty, until they at length became known, under the name of the Vaudois in the twelfth, and that of the Albigenses

how their chosen opinions were treated; what crusades were preached against them; what carnage was made among them; and that, from that period to the present day, Europe has not enjoyed a single year of tranquillity and toleration.

Without daring to scrutinize the ways of providence, which are impenetrable by the human mind, and merely consult-in the thirteenth century. It is known ing, as far as we are permitted, our feeble reason, it would seem that of so many opinions, on so many articles, there would always exist one which must prevail, which was the orthodox, "the right of teaching." The other societies, besides the really orthodox, soon assumed that title also; but being the weaker parties, they had given to them the designation of "heretics."

When, in the progress of time, the Christian church in the east, which was the mother of that in the west, had irreparably broken with her daughter, each remained sovereign in her distinct sphere, and each had her particular heresies, arising out of the dominant opinion.

It is a great evil to be a heretic; but is it a great good to maintain orthodoxy by soldiers and executioners? Would it not be better that every man should eat his bread in peace under the shade of his own fig-tree? I suggest so bold a proposition with fear and trembling.

SECTION II.

Of the Extirpation of Heresies. It appears to me that, in relation to heresies, we ought to distinguish between opinion and faction. From the earliest times of Christianity, opinions were divided, as we have already seen. The Christians of Alexandria did not think, on many points, like those of Antioch. The Achaians were opposed to the Asiatics. This difference has existed through all past periods of our religion, and pro

The barbarians of the north, having but recently become Christians, could not entertain the same opinions as southern countries, because they could not adopt the same usages. They could not, for example, for a long time, adore images, as they had neither painters nor sculptors. It also was somewhat dangerous to baptise an infant in winter, in the Danube, the Weser, or the Elbe. It was no easy matter for the inha-bably will always continue. Jesus Christ, bitants of the shores of the Baltic to know precisely the opinions held in the Milanese and the march of Ancona. The people of the south and of the north of Europe had therefore chosen opinions different from each other. This seems to me to be the reason why Claude, Bishop of Turin, preserved in the ninth century all the usages and dogmas received in the seventh and eighth, from the country of the Allobroges, as far as the Elbe and the Danube.

who might have united all believers in the same sentiment, has not, in fact, done so; we must, therefore, presume that he did not desire it, and that it was his design to exercise in all churches the spirit of indulgence and charity, by permitting the existence of different systems of faith, while all should be united in acknowledging him for their chief and master. All the varying sects, a long while tolerated by the emperors, or concealed from their observation, had no power to perseThese dogmas and usages became cute and proscribe each other, as they fixed and permanent among the inha-were all equally subject to the Roman bitants of valleys and mountainous re-magistrates. They possessed only the

power of disputing with each other. When the magistrates prosecuted them, they all claimed the rights of nature. They said Permit us to worship God in peace; do not deprive us of the liberty you allow to the Jews.

All the different sects existing at present may hold the same language to those who oppress them. They may say to the nations who have granted privileges to the Jews: Treat us as you treat these sons of Jacob: let us, like them, worship God according to the dictates of conscience. Our opinion is not more injurious to your state or realm than Judaism. You tolerate the enemies of Jesus Christ; tolerate us, therefore, who adore Jesus Christ, and differ from yourselves only upon subtle points of theology; do not deprive yourselves of the services of useful subjects. It is of consequence to you to obtain their labour and skill in your manufactures, your marine, and your agriculture, and it is of no consequence at all to you that they hold a few articles of faith different from your own. What you want is their work, and not their catechism.

lution happened in Holland, in Scotland, and in Switzerland. When Ferdinand and Isabella expelled from Spain the Jews,-who were settled there not merely before the reigning dynasty, but before the Moors and Goths, and even the Carthaginians,-the Jews would have effected a revolution ia that country, if they had been as warlike as they were opulent, and if they could have come to an understanding with the Arabs.

In a word, no sect has ever changed the government of a country but when it was furnished with arms by despair. Mahomet himself would not have succeeded, had he not been expelled from Mecca and a price set upon his head.

If you are desirous, therefore, to prevent the overthrow of a state by any sect, shew it toleration. Imitate the wise conduct exhibited at the present day by Germany, England, Holland, Denmark, and Russia. There is no other policy to be adopted with respect to a new sect. than to destroy, without remorse, both leaders and followers, men, women, and children, without a single exception, or to tolerate them when they are numerous. The first method is that of a monster, the second that of a sage.

SECTION III.

Faction is a thing perfectly different. It always happens, as a matter of necessity, that a persecuted sect degenerates Bind to the state all the subjects of into a faction. The oppressed unite, and that state by their interest; let the console and encourage one another. They Quaker and the Turk find their advantage have more industry to strengthen their in living under your laws. Religion is party than the dominant sect has for their between God and man; civil law is beextermination. To crush them or between you and your people. crushed by them is the inevitable alternative. Such was the case after the persecution raised in 303 by the Cæsar Galerius, during the two last years of the reign of Dioclesian. The Christians, after having been favoured by Dioclesian for the long period of eighteen years, had become too numerous and wealthy to be extirpated. They joined the party of Constantius Chlorus: they fought for Constantine his son; and a complete revolution took place in the empire.

We may compare small things to great, when both are under the direction of the same principle or spirit. A similar tevo

It is impossible not to regret the loss of a History of Heresies which Strategius wrote by order of Constantine. Ammianus Marcellinus informs us, that the emperor, wishing to ascertain the opinions of the different sects, and not finding any other person who could give correct ideas on the subject, imposed the office of drawing up a report or narrative upon it on that officer, who acquitted himself so well that Constantine was desirous of his being honoured in consequence with the name of Musonianus.

{

M. de Valois, in his notes upon Ammi- excited by the ecclesiastics in relation to anus, observes that Strategius, who was Arianism. Eusebius informs us, that in appointed prefect of the east, possessed some places the statues of Constantine as much knowledge and eloquence, as were thrown down, because he wished moderation and mildness; such, at least, the Arians to be tolerated; and Sozomen is the eulogium passed upon him by Li- says, that on the death of Eusebius of banius. Nicomedia, when Macedonius, an Arian, The choice of a layman by the em-contested the see of Constantinople with peror shows that an ecclesiastic at that Paul, a Catholic, the disturbance and time had not the qualities indispensible confusion became so dreadful in the for a task so delicate. In fact, St. Au-church, from which each endeavoured to gustin remarks, that a bishop of Bresse, expel the other, that the soldiers, thinkcalled Philastrius, whose work is to being the people in a state of insurrection, found in the collection of the fathers, actually charged upon them; a fierce having collected all the heresies, even and sanguinary conflict ensued, and more including those which existed among the than three thousand persons were slain Jews before the coming of Jesus Christ, or suffocated. Macedonius ascended the reckons twenty eight of the latter and episcopal throne, took speedy possession one hundred and twenty-eight from the of all the churches, and persecuted with coming of Christ; while St. Epiphanius, great cruelty the Novatians and Catholics. comprising both together, makes the It was in revenge against the latter of whole number but eighty. The reason these that he denied the divinity of the assigned by St. Augustin for this differ- { holy spirit, just as he recognised the dience is, that what appears heresy to the vinity of the word, which was denied by one, does not appear so to the other. the Arians out of mere defiance to their Accordingly this father tells the Mani-protector Constantius, who had deposed cheans,-"We take the greatest care not to treat you with rigour; such conduct we leave to those who know not what pains are necessary for the discovery of truth, and how difficult it is to avoid falling into errors; we leave it to those who know not with what sighs and groans even a very slight knowledge of the divine nature is alone to be acquired. For my own part, I consider it my duty to bear with you as I was borne with formerly myself, and to show you the same tolerance which I experienced when I was in error."

him.

The same historian adds, that on the death of Athanasius, the Arians, supported by Valens, apprehended, bound in chains, and put to death those who remained attached to Peter, whom Athanasius had pointed out as his successor. Alexandria resembled a city taken by assault. The Arians soon possessed themselves of the churches, and the bishop, installed by them, obtained the power of banishing from Egypt all who remained attached to the Nicean creed. We read in Socrates, that, after the If however any one considers the in-death of Sisinius, the church of Constanfamous imputations, which we have no-tinople became again divided on the ticed under the article GENEALOGY, and choice of a successor, and Theodosius the the abominations of which this profess-younger placed in the patriarchal see the edly indulgent and candid father accused the Manicheans in the celebration of their mysteries (as we shall see under the article ZEAL) we shall be convinced that toleration was never the virtue of the clergy. We have already seen, under the article COUNCIL, what seditions were

violent and fiery Nestorius. In his first sermon he addresses the following language to the emperor: "Give me the land purged of heretics, and I will give you the kingdom of heaven; second me in the extermination of heretics, and I engage to furnish you with effectual as

sistance against the Persians." He after-sacre of more than a hundred thousand wards expelled the Arians from the capital, Egyptians, on different occasions, for havarmed the people against them, pulled ing refused to acknowledge the council, down their churches, and obtained from had planted in the hearts of the whole the emperor rigorous and persecuting population an implacable hatred against edicts to effect their extirpation. He the emperors. A part of those who were employed his powerful influence subse- hostile to the council withdrew to Upper quently in procuring the arrest, impri- Egypt, others quitted altogether the dosonment, and even whipping the principal minions of the empire, and passed over persons, among the people, who had in- to Africa and among the Arabs, where all terrupted him in the middle of a dis- religions were tolerated. course, in which he was delivering his distinguishing system of doctrine, which was soon condemned at the council of Ephesus.

extent of her authority against the Manicheans. She dispatched orders throughout the empire to seek for them everywhere, and put all those to death who would not recant. More than a hundred thousand perished by different modes of execution. Four thousand, who escaped from this severe scrutiny and extensive punishment, took refuge among the Sara

We have already observed, that under the reign of the Empress Irene, the worship of images was re-established and confirmed by the second council of Nice. Photius relates, that when the priest Leo the Armenian, Michael the Stamreached the altar, it was customary in the merer, and Theophilus, neglected nothing church of Constantinople for the people to effect its abolition; and this opposition to chaunt," Holy God, powerful God, caused farther disturbance in the empire immortal God;" and the name given to of Constantinople, till the reign of the this part of the service was "the trisa-Empress Theodora, who gave the force of gion." The priest Peter, had added-law to the second council of Nice, ex"Who hast been crucified for us, have tinguished the party of Iconoclasts, or mercy upon us." The Catholics consi-image-breakers, and exerted the utmost dered this addition as containing the error of the Eutychian Theopathists, who maintained that the divinity had suffered; they, however, chaunted the trisagion with the addition, to avoid irritating the Emperor Anastasius, who had just deposed another Macedonius, and placed in his stead Timotheus, by whose order this addition was ordered to be chaunted. } But on a particular day the monks en-cens, united their own strength with tered the church, and, instead of the ad- theirs, ravaged the territories of the emdition in question, chaunted a verse from pire, and erected fortresses in which the one of the psalms: the people instantly Manicheans, who had remained concealed exclaimed- "The orthodox have arrived through terror of capital punishment, very seasonably!" All the partisans of found an asylum, and constituted a hostile the council of Chalcedon chaunted, in force, formidable from their numbers, and union with the monks, the verse from the from their burning hatred both of the psalm; the Eutychians were offended; emperors and Catholics. They frequently the service was interrupted, a battle com-inflicted on the territories of the empire menced in the church; the people rushed dread and devastation, and cut to pieces out, obtained arms as speedily as possible, its disciplined armies. spread carnage and conflagration through the city, and were pacified only by the destruction of ten thousand lives.

We abridge the details of these dreadful massacres : those of Ireland, those of the valleys of Piedmont, those which we The imperial power at length esta- shall speak of under the article INQUIblished through all Egypt the authority ofSITION, and, lastly, the massacre of St. this council of Chalcedon; but the mas-Bartholomew, displayed in the west the

same spirit of intolerance, against which nothing more pertinent and sensible has been written than what we find in the works of Salvian.

HERMES.

Hermes or Ermes, Mercury Trismegistus, or Thaut, Taut, or Thot.

WE neglect reading the ancient book of Mercury Trismegistus, and we are not wrong in so doing. To philosophers it has appeared a sublime piece of jargon, and it is perhaps for this reason that they believed it the work of a great Platonist.

Nevertheless, in this theological chaos, how many things there are to astonish and subdue the human mind! God, whose triple essence is wisdom, power, and bounty; God, forming the world by his thought, his word; God creating subaltern gods; God commanding these gods to direct the celestial orbs, and to preside over the world; the sun; the son of God; man his image in thought; light, his principal work a divine essence ;-all these grand and lively images dazzle a subdued imagination.

The following is the language employed respecting the followers of one of the principal heresies by this excellent priest of Marseilles, who was surnamed the master of bishops, who deplored with bitterness the violence and vices of his age, and who was called the Jeremiah of the fifth century. "The Arians," says he," are heretics; but they do not know it; they are heretics among us, but they are not so among themselves; for they consider themselves so perfectly and completely Catholic, that they treat us as heretics. We are convinced that they entertain an opinion injurious to the divine generation, inasmuch as they say that the son is less than the father. They, on the other hand, think that we hold an opinion injurious to the father, because we regard the father and the son equal. The truth is with us, but they consider it as favour- It remains to be known whether this ing them. We give to God the honour work, as much celebrated as little read, which is due to him, but they, according was the work of a Greek or of an Egypto their peculiar way of thinking, main- tian. St. Augustin hesitates not in betain that they do the same. They do not lieving that it is the work of an Egyptian, acquit themselves of their duty; but in who pretended to be descended from the the very point where they fail in doing ancient Mercury, from the ancient Thaut, so, they make the greatest duty of religion the first legislator of Egypt. It is true consist. They are impious, but even in that St. Augustin knew no more of the being so, they consider themselves as fol- Egyptian than of the Greek; but in his lowing, and as practising, genuine piety. { time it was necessary that we should not They are then mistaken, but from a prin- doubt that Hermes, from whom we reciple of love to God; and, although they ceived theology, was an Egyptian sage, have not the true faith, they regard that probably anterior to the time of Alexanwhich they have actually embraced as the der, and one of the priests whom Plato perfect love of God. consulted.

"The sovereign judge of the universe alone knows how they will be punished for their errors in the day of judgment. In the meantime he patiently bears with them, because he sees, that if they are in error, they err from pure motives of piety."

It has always appeared to me, that the theology of Plato in nothing resembled that of other Greeks, with the exception of Timeus, who had travelled in Egypt, as well as Pythagoras.

The Hermes Trismegistus that we possess, is written in barbarous Greek, and in a foreign idiom. This is a proof that it is a translation in which the words nave been followed more than the sense.

Joseph Scaliger, who assisted the Lord