CHAP.

III.

Murders his brother

Theodosius.

668.

Council of

Constanumople.

on the affairs of the empire. The Saracens now ruled over Arabia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and part of Africa. Even Europe suffered from the depredations of the Arabians, and part of Sicily was reduced to their subjection.

The unworthy emperor Constans murdered also his own brother Theodosius, and continued to disIs himself grace the Christian name by his follies, his vices, murdered. and his cruelties. He was himself dispatched at A. D. length in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, in 668. In the year 680 a general council was called at Constantinople: the emperor Constantine Pogonatus presided: the Monothelite heresy was anatheA. D. matized; and its several abettors were condemned, 680. among whom was Honorius a bishop of Rome. A certain proof that infallibility was neither allowed nor pretended to at that time by the Italian prelate. For the legates of Agathon, who was then bishop of Rome, were at the council, nor do we find that any opposition was made by them or by their master to the condemnation of Honorius *.

If we compare the east and the west, during this century, we shall see a very striking difference. In England true godliness shone for a considerable part of it in France there was a good measure of piety; and from these two countries divine truth made its way into Germany and the north with glorious success. In Italy, the Lombards were more and more cleared of Arianism; and though there arose no bishop of Rome to be compared at all to Gregory, yet, in point of theologocial speculation, the purity of the faith was preserved by them all, except one. And his condemnation which we have just seen, demonstrates that Antichrist had not yet arrived at maturity. Infallibility was not then thought of, as attached to the person of the Roman prelate. His power indeed was much too great;

This was the VIth general council held in the 13th year of Constantine V, surnamed Pogonatus, and the gd year of Agathon.

so was his pomp and influence. But it was the same with the bishops of other great Sees: and the bishop of Constantinople retains the title of universal bishop to this day. Nor had the bishop of Rome any temporal dominion, nor did he pretend to any. In fine, the most decisive marks of Antichrist, idolatry and false doctrine, had not yet appeared at Rome. Superstition and vice were lamentably on the increase in the west, though a considerable degree of true piety prevailed, and some gracious effusions of the Spirit of God appeared.

The influences of divine grace seem to have been withheld, in the east, entirely. Men had there filled up the measure of their iniquities. Even from Origen's days a decline of true doctrine, and the spirit of sceptical philosophy, ever hostile to that of grace, kept them low in religion compared with their western brethren. How precious must the grace of the Gospel be, which, being revived in Europe, in the time of Augustine, ceased not to produce salutary effects, and to extend true religion even to the most savage nations! Attempts indeed to propagate, what they called Christianity, were made in the east by the Nestorians, who dwelt in Persia and India, and by the Eutychians, who flourished in Egypt. The former were particularly successful in increasing their numbers; but I have nothing to produce of real godliness as the result of the labours of either party. Abyssinia, which from the days of Athanasius, always considered herself as a daughter of Alexandria, receives thence her pontiff to this day: when Eutychianism prevailed in Egypt, it did so of course in Abyssinia, and has been the prevalent form ever since the seventh century in both countries. The Mahometan conquerors reduced the antient professors of orthodoxy into a state of extreme insignificancy; and this was one of the scourges of God by the

CENT.

VII.

III.

CHAP. Arabian imposture, namely, that while the orthodox were crushed, heretics were encouraged and protected by those conquerors. Orthodox patriarchs existed indeed in Egypt for some time after the Saracen conquest: but ignorance, superstition, and immorality, still abounded, and have now continued to abound for many centuries. The east, whence the light first arose, has long sat in darkness, with the exception of some individuals from age to age, such as John the Almoner, and a few others, who have been mentioned in this chapter. God will have a Church upon earth, and it shall be carried to the most despised regions, rather than extinguished entirely. In these works of his providence there is a significant voice which speaks to Europe in an awful tone.

Africa fell under the power of the Mahometans toward the close of this century. It had long shared in the general corruption, and it shared in the general punishment. The region, which has so often refreshed us with evangelical light and energy, where Cyprian suffered, and where Augustine taught, was consigned to Mahometan darkness, and must henceforth be very nearly dismissed from these memoirs.

CHAP.

IV.

1

CHAP. IV.

AUTHORS OF THIS CENTURY

ISIDORE, of Sevil, flourished in the former part of it he governed the church of Sevil for forty years, having succeeded his brother Leander, of whom we have made honourable mention already. This writer was voluminous, and, with all due allowance for the superstition of the age, appears to have been

* Du Pin, Cent. 7.

VH.

sincerely pious. But perhaps the most useful part CENT. of his works is his collection of sentences out of Gregory. He seems to have been providentially given to Spain, in order to preserve some of the antient learning, and to prevent men from sinking into total ignorance and rusticity.

Columban must be mentioned also as an author, though we have already celebrated him in the character in which he shone far more, namely, of a missionary. He was, no doubt, pious and fervent: he wrote monastic rules, and while every part of his writings is infected with the servile genius of the times, and the spirit of bondage, which had seized the Church, one sentence retrieves his character, and with it I shall dismiss him. "We must have recourse to Christ the fountain of life." Sophronius of Jerusalem wrote a synodal letter to confute the Monothelites. His part in that controversy has been stated already. He asserted, that we shall rise with the same body, and that the punishments of hell are eternal. The most remarkable thing in him, is the soundness of his doctrine, which he adorned with genuine piety and purity of life.

Martin, bishop of Rome, whose sufferings from the tyrant Constans have been succinctly described, was one of the greatest men of the age. Some of his letters are extant, and they indicate both strength of mind, and zeal in religion. Amandus, bishop of Utrecht, in writing to him, declared that he was so grieved to find some clergymen to have lived lasciviously after their ordination, that he was tempted to quit his bishopric. Martin dissuaded him; and at the same time exhorted him to exercise salutary discipline on the offenders, declaring, that such clergymen should be deposed entirely from the sacerdotal function, that they may repent in a private condition, and may find mercy at the last day. He exhorts Amandus to undergo patiently all trials for the salvation of the sheep, and

IV.

CHAP. the service of God. This Roman prelate, doubtless, was sincere, and he appears to have defended evangelical truth with much firmness. And it was for a branch of scriptural doctrine that he suffered with consistency and integrity.

I mention Maximus, his fellow-sufferer in the same cause. His writings are too scholastical to merit much attention, though he was, doubtless, a very able reasoner, and, what is infinitely better, a pious and upright man.

I might swell the list, with the names of writers little known, and of little use. Learning was very low the taste of the age was barbarous: we have seen, however, that Christ had then a Church, and the reader, if he pleases, may travel through still darker scenes; yet I trust some glimmerings of the presence of Christ will appear.

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