to the fee of Rome till two hundred years afterwards. But no one was more willing, as indeed no one of that age was more able to stem the torrent of fuperftition than Claud bishop of Turin, in his numerous writings and comments upon fcripture. He afferted the equality of all the apoftles with St Peter, and maintained that Jesus Christ was the only head of the church. He overthrew the doctrine of merit and all pretences to works of fupererogation. He rejected traditions in matters of religion, held the church to be subject to error, and denied the ufe of prayers for the dead. He proposed the doctrine of the eucharist in a manner totally different from Pafchafius Radbertus, and entirely conformable to the sense of the ancient church. He oppofed with all his might the worship of faints, of relics, of images, together with pilgri mages, penances, and other fuperftitions of the like kind. He may in a manner be faid to have fown the feeds of the Reformation in his diocese of Turin; and his doctrines took fuch deep root especially in the vallies of Piedmont, that they continued to flourish there for fome centuries, as the papifts themselves acknowledge. d The tenth century even the writers of the Romish communion lament and defcribe as the most debauched and wicked, the most illiterate and ignorant age fince the coming of Chrift. Genebrard fays "This is called the unhappy age, being destitute of men famous for wit and learning, as alfo of famous princes and popes; in which scarce any thing was done worthy of the memory of pofterity." He fubjoins, "But chiefly unhappy is this one thing, that for almost 150 years about 50 popes totally degenerated from the virtue of their ancestors, being more like apoftates than apoftles." Baronius himselfe denomi nates Seethefe points proved by quotationsand extracts from hisworks in Dr Allix his Remarks upon the ancient churches of Piedmont. Chap, 9. See also Spanheim, Dupin, Cave, &c. d Infelix dicitur hoc fæculum,exhauftum hominibus ingenio etdoctrina claris, fic etiam claris principibus; et pontificibus; in quo nihil fere dignum memoria pofteritatis geftum fit-Hoc vero uno infelixquod per annos fere 150 pontificescirciter 50 a virtute majorum prorfus defecerint, Apotactici Apoftatieive potius quam Apoftolici. Genebrard. Chron. Lib. 4. In initio X Sæc Uffer. de Chriftian. Ecclef. fucceffione et statu. Cap. 2. Sect. 34. Spanhemii Hift. Christian. Sæc. X Cap. 3. Sect. 1. En novum inchoatur fæculum, quod fui afperitateac boni sterili tate 236 DISSERTATIONS ON f nates it an iron, a leaden, and obfcure age and declares that "Chrift was then, as it appears, in a very deep fleep, when the fhip was covered with waves; and what feemed worse, when the Lord was thus afleep, there were wanting difciples who by their cries might awaken him, being themselves all faft afleep." It is not to be wondered, that in fo long and dark a night as this, while all were afleep, the fubtle enemy fhould fow his tares in great a bundance. fhining in a dark place,' who remonstrated against the deHowever there were fome few like generacy and fuperftition of the times. and decrees of the councils of Francfort and Paris against the worship of images had ftill fome force and influence 'lights in Germany, in France, in England, and other countries. The Refolutions In the former part of this century, in the year 909, a council & was held at Trofly, a village near Soiffons in France; and having made feveral wife and good regulations, they concluded with a profeffion of the things, which Chriftians ought to believe and practise: and in that profeffion are none of those things which constitute the fum of popifh doctrine, nothing of the pope's being head of the church, nothing of the daily facrifice of the mass, or of purgatory, or of the worship of creatures, or of commentitious facraments, or of confeffion to the priest, but of pure and fincere confeffion to God: fo much did. this council differ from the fpirit and principles of the council of Trent. Many churches ftill retained the use of the fcriptures in the vulgar tongue: and in England. particularly Athelstan caufed them to be tranflated into the Anglo-Saxon idiom. Great oppofition was alfo made in feveral countries to the celibacy of the clergy; and feveral councils were held upon the controverfy between h i tate ferreum, malique exundantis deformitate plumbeum, atque inopia fcriptorum appellari confuevit obfcurum. Baron. ad ann. 900.. Dormiebat tunc plane alto (ut apparet) fopore Chriftus, cum navis fluctibus operiretur: Et quod deterius videbatur, deerant qui Dominum fie dormientem clamoribus excitarent difcipuli,ftertentibus omnibus. Ibid. ad. ann. 912. Uffer. ibid. Spanhem. ibid.. f Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 6. Sect. 8. Hift. Imag. Sec. 9. 8 Tom. 3. Concil. Galliæ. Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 8. Sect. 3. Dupin. X. Siecle. Cap. 3.. fecit in Anglo-Saxonicum idioma. Wilh. Malmef. et Belaeus. i Spanhem. ibid, Sect. 5. Spelmanni Concil. Brit. Vol. 1. Colli er's Ecclef. Hift. B. 3. p. 199. between the monks and the fecular clergy, and particular. ly in England, where Elfere earl of Mercia expelled the monks out of the monafteries in that province, and introduced the clergy with their wives. Many too even in this age denied the doctrine of tranfubftantiation. Heri ger abbot of Lobes near Liege * wrote exprefsly against it; as did alfo Alfric in England, whofe homily for Eafter ufed to be read publicly in the churches. His principal aim therein m is to prove, "that we fpiritually tafte the body of Chrift, and drink his blood, when with true faith we partake of that holy facrament; the bread and wine cannot by any benediction be changed into the body and blood of Chrift, they are indeed the body and blood of Chrift, yet not corporally, but fpiritually;" with much more to the fame purpofe. He wrote alfo two epiftles, the one addreffed to Wulfim bifhop of Shirburn, and the other to Wulfftan archbishop of York, wherein he afferts the fame doctrine. In the former he thus explains the doctrine of the facrament; "The hoft is the body of Chrift, not corporally, but fpiritually. Not the body in which he fuffered; but the body of which he spake, when he confecrated the bread and wine the night preceding his paffion, and faid of the con fecrated bread, This is my body, and again of the confecrated wine, This is my blood, which is fhed for many for the remiffion of fins." In the latter he hath these ⚫ memorable words, which some papists of more zeal than k Singebert de Ecclefiaft. Script. Cap. 138. Uffer. ibid. Sect. 20. Spanhem, ibid. Cap. 7. Sect 3. Dupin. ibid. Chap. 4. Uffer. ibid. Sect. 20, 21. Spanhem. ibid. Sect. 2. Dupin. ibid. Chap. 5. Cave, Hist. Litt. Vol. 2. p. 108, &c. Collier's Ecclefiaft Hift. B. 3. p. 204, &c. m-id pene unice agit," ut oftendat nos fpiritualiter corpus Chri "fti guftare ejufque fanguinem bibere, cum vera fide facram illam "guftamus euchariftiam; panem et vinuminon poffe per ullam bene"dictionem in Christi corpus et fanguinem mutari: vere quidem "Chrifti corpus et fanguinem effe, non tamen corporaliter, fed fpiritualiter; &c," Cave. ibid. p. 110. ǹ Hoftia illa eft Chrifti corpus non corporaliter, fed fpiritualiter. Non corpus in quo paffus eft: fed corpus de quo locutus eft, quando panem et vinum, ea quæ paffionem anteceffit nocte, in hoftiam confecravit: :: et de facrato pane dixit, Hoc eft corpus meum; rurfumque de facro vino, Hic eft fanguis meus, qui pro multis effunditur in remiffionem peccatorum. Apud Uffer. ibid. Sect. 21. • Non fit tamen hoc facrificium corpus ejus in quo paffus eft pro nobis, neque fanguis ejus quem pro nobis effudit, spiritualiter cor pus than knowledge attempted to erafe out of the manufcript copy. "Yet this facrifice is not made his body in which he fuffered for us, nor his blood which he poured out for us, but it is fpiritually made his body and blood; as the manna which rained from heaven, and the water which flowed from the rock, as Paul the apostle faith.” The fynods and councils, which were held in this age by the authority of kings and bishops, fhow evidently that the power of the pope had not yet extended over all. Nay there were kings and bishops who opposed the fupremacy of the pope; and none more than P the council of Rheims in the year 991, and Gerbert archbishop of Rheims, who declared "that if the pope did amifs, he was liable to the "cenfures of the church:" and fpeaking of the pope then reigning John XV, "What," fays he, "do you conceive this man, fitting on a lofty throne, glittering in purple cloathing and in gold, what, I fay, do you conceive him to be? If he is deftitute of charity, and is puffed up by knowledge alone, he is Antichrift fitting in the temple of God, and fhowing himself that he is God." He was afterwards himself chofen pope under the name of Sylvester II, and poffibly the change of his fituation might produce a change in his fentiments. Much of the fame complexion with the tenth was the eleventh century, equally funk in profligacy, superstition, and ignorance, but yet not without fome fuperior spirits to bear teftimony against it. The papal power was in this century carried beyond all bounds by the ambition and arrogance of the reigning popes, and particularly by the violence and haughtiness of Gregory VII, whofe former name was Hildebrand, or Hell brand, as he hath often been denominated. But yet there were emperors and councils, who ftrenuoufly oppofed the pretenfions and pus ejus efficitur et fanguis: ficut manna quod de cælo pluit, et aqua quæ de petra fluxit, ficut Pallus apoftolus ait. Apud Uffer. ibid. et Cave ibid. b Spanhem. ex Baronio add ann. 992. Num. ro, &c. et ex Epift. Gerberti. Si peccaverit, fubeffe judicio ecclefiæ.-Quid hunc, reverendi patres, in fublimi folio refidentem, vefte purpurea et auro ra diantem, quid hunc, inquam, effe cenfetis? Nimirum fi charitate deftituitur, folaque fcientia inflatur et extollitur, Antichriftus eft in templo Dei fedens, et fe oftendens tanquam fit Deus. Cap. 6. Sect. 3, &c. Dupin. ibid. Chap. 5. See alfo Allix's Remarks upon the ancient churches of the Albigenfes. Chap. 10. r and ufurpations of the fee of Rome; and thefe contests and struggles between the popes and emperors about the right of inveftitures and other articles make a principal part of the History of this age. Our English kings, devoted as they were to the religion, yet would not entirely fubmit to the authority of the bishop of Rome; but contradicted it in feveral instances. When William I. was required by the pope to pay him homage, he made 9 anfwer, "To pay homage I have been unwilling, nor am I willing; for neither did I promise it, neither do I find that my predeceffors paid it to your predeceffors." His fon William Rufus exerted fomewhat of the fame spirit, and infifted that the pope, without his permiffi. on, had no manner of jurifdiction in England. Early in this century, there appeared at Orleans fome heretics as they were called, who maintained that the confecration of the priest could not change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and that it was unprofitable to pray to faints and angels; and they were condemned by the council of Orleans in the year 1017. Not long after these appeared other heretics of the fame stamp in Flanders, who were alfo condemned by the fynod of Arras in the year 1025. They came originally from Italy, where they had been the difciples of Gundulphus; and they are faid to have admitted no fcripture but the gofpels and apoftolical writings; to have denied the reality of the body and blood of Chrift in the eucharift; to have attributed no religious worship to the holy confeffors, none to the crofs, none to images, nor to temples nor altars; and to have afferted, that there was no purgatory, and that penances after death could not abfolve the deceased from their fins. Other tenets were afcribed to them, which were really heretical and perhaps they might hold fome errors, as well as fome truth; or perhaps a Fidelitatem facere nolui, nec volo; quia nec ego promifi, nec anteceffores meos antecefforibus tuis id feciffe comperio. Apud Baron. Ann. 1079. Sect. 25. Uffer, de Chriftian. Ecclef. fucceffione et statu. Cap. 7. Sect. 9. S Eadmer. Hift. Lib. 2. Collier's Ecclef. Hift. B. 4. p. 279. Dupin XI. Siecle. Chap. 13. Fred.Spanhemii Hift. Christian. Sæc. XI. Chap. 1o. Sect. 1. t Spanhem. ibid. Dupin. ibid. Allix's Remarks upon the ancient church of Piedmont. Chap. II. |