V. CHAP. relics: an evil so general, I had almost said UNIVERSAL, at that time, that it cannot fix any particular blot on the character of Anscarius. Rembert made bishop of Bremen. proof of his having practised or encouraged imageworship. It is true, that he was devoted to the See of Rome. And, in those days, how few were not so! The Centuriators in their own attachment to the prejudices of the age, in which they lived, might have found a charitable apology for those of the northern Apostle. If candour be not exercised in such circumstances, we shall scarce be able to see, for many ages, even the existence of a Church of Christ. A Luther, firmly and decidedly resisting, and even despising the current maxims of his own age, is a rare phenomenon. I have the satisfaction to observe, that Mosheim is, in the case of Anscarius, more candid than the Centuriators. He allows, that the labours of that missionary, and in general of the other missionaries in this century, deserve the highest commendations. If it were possible to exhibit a circumstantial account of Anscarius, most probably the justice of Mosheim's encomium on his character would be ascertained beyond the reach of contradiction. What else but the genuine love of God in Christ could have furnished the mind with such faith in Providence, perseverance in hardships, and active charity for souls? Rembert, his confidant, was appointed bishop of Bremen, by the dying words of the Apostle. He wrote the life of his predecessor, a treatise which seems to have furnished historians with the greatest part of their materials concerning Anscarius. Rembert himself presided over the Church of the north, for twenty-three years, and established their discipline and ecclesiastical consistence. He was not unworthy of the confidence of his predecessor, and lived and died an example of piety. He began to IX. preach among the people of Brandenburg, which CENT. hitherto had been altogether pagan, and made some progress toward their conversion. He died in 888. Dies, A. D. 888. English Jeron, an English presbyter, went over to Holland, in this century, and preached the Gospel Jeron, an there and, so far as appears, with faithfulness. missionary, He was crowned with martyrdom about the martyred in year 849*. of Holland, $49. Patto, a Scotch abbot, was appointed bishop Verden, by Charlemagne. The Centuriators only tell us, that he strenuously supported popish corruptions and human traditions. But Crantzius, from whom they collected this account, would have informed them also of better things t. Patto, it appears, had great success among the infidels, but was grieved to see Christian professors disgracing Patto, a the faith by their vices. He faithfully rebuked Scotch abthem; and for his honest zeal in preaching against dered, the sins of nominal Christians, was murdered about A. D. the year 815. bot, mur 815. Tanes, who had succeeded Patto in the Scotch abbey, after a time left his situation, and followed his countryman into Germany, not so much with a desire of martyrdom, say the Centuriators, as of obtaining a richer benefice. Uncharitable surmise! There is too much of this leaven to be found in a work, which, in other respects, abounds in piety and industry. The same Crantzius informs us, Crantzins's that Tanes, in fact, laboured in conjunction with account of Patto, and, after a while, was appointed his successor to the Sec of Verden. Were the sufferings and hardships, which Patto and himself had sustained among barbarians, likely to render the bishopric of Verden an enviable object of ambition? I know no other ground on which the propagation of the Gospel may be discovered in this + See A. Butler, Vol. II. * Cent. Madg. Tanes. V. CHAP. century. The accounts of the labours of Spanish pastors among the Mahometans, or of the sufferings of the Christians under the persecutions of the Moors, are not sufficiently authenticated. The reader, I hope, has seen, in this dark century, a clear demonstration, that the Church of Christ still existed. He may now, if he please, descend with me to the ultimate point of Christian depression. CENTURY X. CHA P. I. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE CHURCH IN THIS ΤΗ CENTURY. I. HE famous annalist of the Roman Church, CHAP. whose partiality to the Sec of Rome is notorious, has, however, the candour to own, that this was an iron age, barren of all goodness; a leaden age, abounding in all wickedness; and a dark age, remarkable above all others for the scarcity of writers, and men of learning*. "Christ was then, as it appears, in a very deep sleep, when the ship was covered with waves; and what seemed worse, when the Lord was thus asleep, there were no disciples, who, by their cries, might awaken him, being themselves all fast asleep." Under an allusion by no means incongruous with the oriental and scriptural taste, this writer represents the Divine Head of the Church as having given up the Church, for its wickedness, to a judicial impenitency, which continued the longer, because there were scarce any zealous spirits who had the charity to pray for the cause of God upon earth. I give this serious and devotional sense to Baronius, because the words will bear it, without the least violence, and the phraseology is perfectly scriptural †. Infidel malice has with pleasure recorded the * Baron. Aunal. ↑ As for instance, Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Ps. xliv. 23. I. CHAP. vices and the crimes of the popes of this century. Nor is it my intention to attempt to palliate the account of their wickedness. It was as deep and as atrocious as language can paint; nor can a reasonable man desire more authentic evidence of history, than that, which the records both of civil and ecclesiastical history afford, concerning the corruption of the whole Church. One pleasing circumstance, however, occurs to the mind of a genuine Christian; which is, that all this was predicted. The Book of the Revelation may justly be called a prophetic history of these transactions, and the truth of Scripture is vindicated by events of all others the most disagreeable to a pious mind. A council fort. A. D. gog. What materials then appear for the history of the real Church? The propagation of the Gospel among the pagan nations, and the review of some writers of this century, form the principal materials, and shall be the subjects of two distinct chapters. But the general description of the situation of the Church, can be little else than a very succinct enumeration of the means made use of to oppose the progress of popery. The decrees of the council of Frankfort against at Frank-image-worship had still some influence in Germany, France, and England. In the year gog, a council was held at Trosle, a village near Soissons in France, in which they expressed their sentiments of Christian faith and practice, without any mixture of doctrine that was peculiarly popish. Many Churches still had the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. The monks took much pains in our island to erect an independent dominion on the ruin of the secular clergy. This scheme, equally destructive of civil and clerical authority, met, however, with a vigorous, and, in a great measure, a successful resistance; and the celibacy of the clergy was strongly opposed. Even the doctrine of transubstantiation itself, the favourite child of Pascasius |