Imatges de pàgina
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Paulicians.

Cent. 7.

lies, a specimen of which we have just given. The bishops many of them were so exceedingly ignorant that they could not compose their own sermons; of course they were not very consummate judges of those composed by others; therefore they were obliged to vapour for the hour with the best, or any thing they could meet with.

Departed saints being the objects of worship, their effigies and images left behind, or made a bundred years after their death, were deemed sacred, and adored, together with pieces of the material cross, the links and filings of St. Peter's chain, and many such like things. But amidst such an awful departure from primitive. Christianity, where are we to look for the true worshippers, who worship the Father in spirit? God had his church, doubtless, and if the members of it are scarcely to be found in the visible pale, we must direct our research in the more untrod paths of the excommunicated and the reputed heretical. The Paulieians, a sect reputed exceedingly erroneous, and dreadfully persecuted, seem, notwithstanding, to bear some strong marks of genuine piety. The very things, for which they are counted worthy of death and of bonds, prove their innocence: they refused to worship the Virgin Mary-they treated with contempt the precious wood of the cross-refused to observe festivals, and to wear pompous garments— and they were so wicked as to make a stand against the different orders of the clergy, and instead of patriarchs, bishops, &e. they instituted a set of pastor, perfectly equal in authority and office. This persecuted people, notwithstanding the wrath of their enemies, were enabled to maintain their ground. For the space of a hundred and fifty years, their churches were found in Asia Minor, West of the Euphrates: and doubtless this peo

Chap. 3.

Waldenses.

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ple had continued to a much later period, had they not at length, after long and severe persecution, used carnal weapons against their enemies, by which means they were left to dwindle away.

In this century some faint traces of that "peculiar people" the VALDENSES are to be seen. There is scarcely any thing more difficult in ecclesiastical history than to give a correct statement of the origin of this Christian society. It has been thought by some that they sprang from the Paulicians; their views of doctrine and diseipline being in many instances very similar. The Paulicians, as we have just seen, were a people of Asia, but it is pretty clear that they spread into Europe, and being hunted by persecution, it is not at all unlikely that they gave rise to, or in a measure contributed to the formation of the Valdensian societies. We have no hesitation in affirming that the origin of the Valdenses is much more ancient than the history of Clau dius of Turin, or of Peter of Lyons. Reinerius Saecho, an inquisitor, and cruel persecutor of this people, admits that the Waldenses flourished five hundred years before his time, and he wrote in the twelfth century, Gretzer the Jesuit, who wrote against them, and had an opportunity of examining the subject, fully admits their great antiquity.

The name by which this people has been called, is evidently derived from the place where they first flourished. "From the Latin word VALLIS came the Eng. lish word valley, the French and Spanish valle, the Italian valdesi, the low Dutch valleye, the Provencal vaux, vaudoes, the ecelesiastical Valdenses and Waldenses. The words simply signify vallies, the inhabitants of Vallies, and no more." There were many other names by which they were called by their enemies, but Wal

214

Close of the Century.

Cent. Y.

denses is their more legitimate and standard designation, and by which they will be hereafter known.

The conclusion of this century has brought us to the evening of a glorious day. The sun is below the hori zon, and the shades of night are spreading a dismal aspect over the spiritual hemisphere. The absence of the shining orb is no loss to men who love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil, and who are capable with the sparks of their own kindling at any time to produce just light enough to lead them on in the path of the destroyer. At this season of the church, though the full blaze of Divine truth was withdrawn, yet some glimmerings were left to prove that it was not extinct, and to direct the eager eye to that quarter of the heavens from whence its return might be expeeted. The morning of the Reformation is at hand: the Sun of righteousness shall arise, and though he first ascend upon a sea of blood, yet he shall travel in the greatness of his strength till he has chased darkness from the face of the globe, filled the vast expanse with his presence, and cheered, and animated, and beautified, the whole creation, with the light of his countenance.

EIGHTH CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.

Extension of the Mahometan Power-The Roman Church -Image Worship-Rome and Constantinople at

variance.

THE Mahometan power, though divided by rival and contending caliphs, yet did not fail to increase its conquests, and to enlarge its territory. The Eastern empire suffered greatly. Such were the broils and commotions in that department of government, that the Saracens found it a prey ready prepared to their hand. This was an increasing calamity to the Christian name. The Turks also, though the enemies of the Saracens, yet they in their conquests proved a dreadful scourge to the empire.

In the West, these Ishmaelites carried it with a high hand. In the year 714, they crossed the sea from Afriea to Spain, where they pushed their conquests so successfully, that the kingdom of the Goths, which had stood about three hundred years, fell a victim to their prowess. Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the maritime coast of Gaul from the Pyrenean mountains to the Rhone, together with part of Italy, fell into their possession, and but for the vigorous opposition of the Gallic arms, the whole of Europe would most likely have been reduced to subjection. In these conquests, those bearing

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Winfrid.

Cent. 6.

the Christian profession were reduced to great straits and thousands abandoned the faith and embraced the religion of their conquerors. In the loss of these, Christianity sustained no damage. It is of little consequence whether men acknowledge Christ or Mahomet, if they be destitute of spirituality of heart and life.

Notwithstanding the catholic church suffered by the spread of the Koran, yet in other parts success attended the labours of the monkish missionaries. Willebrod, whose archiepiscopal see we have seen was set up at Utrecht, with his companions and successors, contributed to spread the Christian name. Winfrid, a countryman of Willebrod, and a man of a similar cast, laboured exceedingly in extending the domain of the Roman see. His ministry was exercised in Friezeland, and various parts of Germany; and as a reward for his indefatigable zeal, he was at last consecrated by the pope, archbishop of Mentz. At an advanced age he was murdered by the pagans, after he had spent forty years in the service of his pontifical master. Some of his labours, we hope, will go to account of the real ehurch, but there was too much fondness for Rome, and too much of the spirit of that hierarchy to suffer him to do much real good. After his consecration to the see of Mentz, he was by the papal decree denominated Boniface.

Such, was the too manifest object of these propagators of Christianity, that the pagans saw the whole was a farce, intended only to bring them under the episcopal yoke, and thereby to inveigle them out of their money and their rights. It is recorded of Radbod king of Friezeland, that he said to one of the missionaries, "I had rather go to hell, if it were to enjoy the fellowship of my great ancestors, than to heaven, to be asso

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