IV.

CHAP paltry refuges as this of Euphraxus. A licentious Charles II. anxiously flying to popish ceremonies, in his dying hours, is not a singular case. Others, who, like him in health, despised the doctrines of grace, have done the same.

Nilus refuses a bishopric.

Dies,

A. D. 1005.

Nilus refused the offer of the bishopric of Capua: nor could the most flattering invitations induce him to go to Constantinople. He seemed likely to enjoy tranquil retirement to his death, in his convent. But Providence ordered it otherwise. The Saracens invaded Calabria, of which they afterwards gained possession. Nilus was driven from his home, and lived a long time in other convents. Otho III. upon a visit, pressed him to accept some situation in his dominions, wherever he should choose. Nilus thanked the emperor, but said, our Divine Master will not forsake my brethren, if they be true monks, after I am gone. Ask what you please, said the emperor, I will give it you with pleasure."The only thing, I ask you," replied Nilus," is, that you would save your soul. For you must give an account to God, as well as other men." This good abbot died at Tusculum, in an extreme old age in the year 1005

Such was the light, scattered here and there, in the darkness of the times, by which the God of grace and mercy called, nourished, and sanctified his Church, and preserved to himself a godly seed in the earth, who should serve him in the Gospel of his Son, and prevent the cruel tyranny of the prince of darkness from completely overspreading the world.

A. Butler,

THE

CENTURY.

I.

HE genuine Church of Christ under the pro- CHAP. tection and influence of her supreme head, existed indeed in this century; but it would be in vain to attempt a regular and systematical history of her progress. Some particular circumstances in different parts of the Christian world, some pious and successful endeavours to propagate the Gospel in pagan countries, some degrees of opposition to the reigning idolatry and superstition, and the writings of some pious and evangelical Theologians, demonstrated that the Spirit of God had not forsaken the earth altogether.

Indeed, if this century may be said, in some degree, to have excelled the last, the superiority must be ascribed to the improvements of learning. For the arts and sciences revived, in a measure, among the clergy and the monks, though not cultivated* by any other set of men. I speak in regard to the western Church; for the eastern, enfeebled and oppressed by the Turks and Saracens from without, and by civil broils and factions from within, with difficulty preserved that degree of knowledge, which in those degenerate days still remained among the Greeks. I scarce find any vestiges of Christian piety among

* Mosheim, Cent. XI. 479.

I.

CHAP. the eastern Christians at this time: indeed, the attentive reader must have observed how barren of that sort of events, which relate to Christian history, Asia in general had been for some ages.-So fatal was the influence of Mahometanism, and so judicially hardened were the descendants of those, who first had honoured the religion of Jesus. Constantinople was still called a Christian city, and, in learning and politeness, was superior to any part of the west but it is in Europe we are to look for the emanations of piety. France and Italy excelled particularly in the cultivation of learning. Robert king of France, the son and successor of Hugh Capet, who began to reign in 996, and died in 1031, distinguished himself as the friend of science. Even the ferocious Normans, whose wars and devastations were so terrible in Italy, France, and England, after they had established their respective governments, applied themselves to the cultivation of the human mind, and diffused some light among the people whom they had subdued. This was particularly the case with the southern parts of Italy, and with our own island. William the Conqueror, savage and imperious as he was, restored letters to England, which, amidst the Danish depredations, had been almost extinguished. And we shall see, at least, one learned foreigner at the head of the English Church, who, uniting piety to knowledge, was not unworthy of the Christian name. The learning itself, indeed, was not philosophical, but consisted chiefly of grammar, rhetoric and logic. It was, however, connected with divinity; the Scriptures were held in high reputation: the hardy presumption of subtile theory, and the supercilious negligence concerning piety and public worship, which have marked the character of modern times, were then but little known among men. In such circumstances, to have learned to read, to have attended to the meaning of words, and to have employed the powers of the human mind, in any

XI.

manner, on the sacred writings, were blessings to CENT mankind. In Italy and France also there were some witnesses of divine truth, who opposed the abominations of the popedom.

The great scenes of political contention in this age, were, in the east, the Crusades; in the west, the disputes between the popes and the emperors. Civil, and even, what is called ecclesiastical, history, is full of these subjects*. To my province they bear scarcely any relation. The former were attended with dreadful evils, and much augmented with the influence of that pernicious superstition, which cominutes for offences, and taught men to indulge themselves in the worst of vices, through the hope of finding their way to heaven by the merit of a Crusade. I shall, however, examine a little, hereafter, the grounds of the justice or injustice of these expeditions, because the character of some pious men of great eminence, is connected with the question. The disputes between the popes and the emperors seem entirely barren of instructive incidents in religion. They confirm, nevertheless, the Christian in the belief of those Scriptures which so accurately mark the character of Antichrist t. Gregory VII. commonly called Hildebrand, began the scheme, which fifty years after was completely accomplished, namely, of rescuing the election of the popes from the emperors, and of fixing it entirely in the college of Cardinals, in which it still continues. The celibacy of the clergy, and the Popery tridoctrine of transubstantiation, were established by council of the council of Placentia in 1095. Popery, in short, Placentia reigned triumphant, and no public profession of A. D.

*The emperor of Germany, Henry III. surnamed the Black, hearing of the scandalous lives of the popes and the clergy, called the VIIIth General Council at Sutri, A. D. 1046; when the three pretenders to the popedom were deposed: Gregory VT. for Simony, Benedict IX. and Silvester III. for the same, and wicked lives in general. See Bower V.

+ See particularly Thess, ii. 1 Tim. iv.

umphant;

1095

CHAP. the Gospel, which professed independence of the Romish domination, could be endured in Europe.

.I.

It will be proper to close this general view of the century with a circumstance or two concerning Africa. That once fruitful mother of the Churches, who gloried in her Cyprians and Augustines, had now only two bishops. The Saracens, masters of the country, persecuted the Christians there with great bitterness; yet so infatuated were the African Christians with the love of sin, that they quarrelled among themselves, and betrayed their bishop Cyriacus into the hands of the infidels, who much abused him. Gregory. VII. wrote to the good bishop, to comfort him in his distresses. A friendly letter, abounding with truly Christian sentiments, even from so imperious and unchristian a character as Hildebrand's, might convey consolation to the mind of Cyriacus*. Piety united with distress stands aloof from politics, and thankfully embraces truth as sent from her God, whatever be the instrument.

He, who seriously reflects in what glory the religion of Christ once shone in Asia and Africa; how dark and idolatrous, and, at the same time, how insensible of their spiritual misery the inhabitants of those two quarters of the globe were in this century, and continue even to the present times, will see with what reverential care the jewel of the Gospel should be cherished, while in our possession, lest we not only lose our own souls, but entail a curse on ages yet unborn.

CHAP. II.

THE OPPOSITION MADE TO THE ERRORS OF

POPERY.

CHAP. IN the year 1017, certain persons, real or supposed heretics, were discovered in France, who were said

II.

• Du Pin. 1st edit. Vol. IV. Cent. XI. p. 55.