VI. PART I.

tions against the doctrines of the gospel; and the CENT. Epicheiremato of Proclus, written expressly against the disciples of Jesus, were universally read, and were, on that account, accurately refuted by Philoponus [9]. All this shews, that many of the magistrates who were witnesses of these calumnious attempts against the gospel, were not so much Christians in reality, as in appearance, otherwise they would not have permitted the slanders of these licentious revilers to pass without correction or restraint.

ings of the

III. Notwithstanding the extensive progress of The sufferthe gospel, the Christians, even in this century, Christians suffered grievously, in several places, from the in several savage cruelty and bitterness of their enemies. In places. Britain, the Anglo-Saxons, who were masters of that kingdom, involved a multitude of its ancient inhabitants, who professed Christianity, in the deepest distresses, and tormented them with all that variety of suffering, which the injurious and malignant spirit of persecution could invent [r]. The Huns, in their irruption into Thrace, Greece, and the other provinces, during the reign of Justinian, treated the Christians with great barbarity; not so much, perhaps, from an aversion to Christianity, as from an hostile spirit of hatred against the Greeks, and a desire of overturning and destroying their empire. The face of affairs was totally changed in Italy, about the middle of this century, by a grand revolution which happened under the reign of Justinian I. This emperor, by the arms of Narsus, overturned the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, which had subsisted ninety years; and subdued all Italy under his dominion. The state of things, however, which this revolution introduced, was not of a very long dura

H 4

[q] See J. A. Fabricii Bibliotheca Græca, vol. iii. p. 522. [r] Usserii. Index Chronol. Antiquit. Eccles. Brittann. sub. jectus ad A. 508. p. 1123.

VI.

CENT. duration; for the Lombards, a fierce and warlike people, headed by Albonius their king, and joined PART I. by several other German nations, issued forth from Pannonia, in the year 568, under the reign of Justin, invaded Italy; and having made themselves masters of the whole country, except Rome and Ravenna, erected a new kingdom at Tacinum. Under these new tyrants, who, to the natural ferocity of their characters, added an aversion to the religion of Jesus, the Christians, in the beginning, endured calamities of every kind. But the fury of these savage usurpers gradually subdued; and their manners contracted, from time to time, a milder character. Autharis, the third monarch of the Lombards, embraced Christianity, as it was professed by the Arians, in the year 587. But his successor Agilulf, who married his widow Theudelinda, was persuaded by that princess, to abandon Arianism, and to adopt the tenets of the Nicene Catholics [s].

But the calamities of the Christians, in all other countries, were light and inconsiderable in comparison of those which they suffered in Persia under Chosroes; the inhuman monarch of that nation. This monster of impiety aimed his audacious and desperate efforts against heaven itself; for he publicly declared, that he would make war not only upon Justinian, but also upon the God of the Christians; and, in consequence of this blasphemous menace, he vented his rage against the followers of Jesus in the most barbarous manner, and put multitudes of them to the most cruel and ignominious deaths [t].

[s] Paul. Diacon. De gestis Longobardorum, lib. ii. cap. ii. xxvii. p. 219. 231. edit. Lindenbrogii. Muratorii Antiq. Italiæ, tom. i. p. 14. tom. ii. p. 297. Giannone Histoire de Naples, tom. i. p. 302.

[] Procopius, De bello Persico, lib. ii. cap. xxvi.

PART II.

The INTERNAL HISTORY of the CHURCH.

CHAP. I..

Concerning the state of letters and philosophy during this century.

T

VI.

in the west.

I. HE incursions of the barbarous nations into CENT. the greatest part of the western provinces, PART II. were extremely prejudicial to the interests of learning and philosophy, as must be known to all The state who have any acquaintance with the history of of letters these unhappy times. During these tumultuous scenes of desolation and horror, the liberal arts. and sciences would have been totally extinguished, had they not found a place of refuge, such as it was, among the bishops, and the monastic orders. Here they assembled their scattered remains, and received a degree of culture which just served to keep them from perishing. Those churches, which were distinguished by the name of Cathedrals, had schools erected under their jurisdiction, in which the bishop, or a certain person appointed by him, instructed the youth in the seven liberal arts, as a preparatory introduction to the study of the scriptures [a]. Persons of both sexes, who had devoted themselves to the monastic life, were obliged, by the founders of their respective orders, to employ daily a certain portion of their time in reading the ancient doctors of the church, whose

[a] Fleury, Discours sur l'Histoire Eccles. depuis l'an 600, &c. sect. 21. p. 56. tom. xiii. de l'Histoire Eccles.-Histoire Litter. de la France, tom. iii. Intr. sect. 32. p. 12. Herm. Conringii Antiq. Academicæ, p. 66-167. edit. Heumann.

PART II.

CENT. whose writings were looked upon as the rich reVI. pertories of celestial wisdom, in which all the treasures of theology were centered [b]. Hence libraries were formed in all the monasteries, and the pious and learned productions of the Christian and other writers were copied and dispersed by the diligence of transcribers appointed for that purpose, who were generally such monks as, by weakness of constitution, or other bodily infirmities, were rendered incapable of harder labour. To these establishments we owe the preservation and possession of all the ancient authors, sacred and profane, who escaped, in this manner, the savage fury of Gothic ignorance, and are happily transmitted to our times. It is also to be observed that, besides the schools that belonged to the cathedrals, there were others opened in the monasteries, in which the youth who were set apart for the monastic life, were instructed by the abbot, or some of his ecclesiastics, in, the arts and sciences [c].

The sciences are

taught very

ly.

II. But these institutions and establishments, however laudable, did not produce such happy imperfect effects as might have been expected from them. For, not to speak of the indolence of certain abbots and bishops, who neglected entirely the duties of their stations, nor of the bitter aversion which others discovered towards every sort of learning and erudition, which they considered as pernicious to the progress of piety [d]; not to

speak

[6] Benedict. Anianensis Concordia Regularum, lib. ii. p. 55, 64, 75, 77, 80, 100. lib. iii. p. 16-41, &c. edit. Hung. Menardi. Jo. Mabillon, Præf. ad. Sæc. i. Actor. SS. Ord. Bened. p. 44.

[c] Benedict. Concord. Reg. lib. ii. p. 232. Mabillon Actor. SS. Ord. Bened. tom. i. p. 314.

[d] Gregory the Great is said to have been of this number, and to have ordered a multitude of the productions of Pagan writers, and among others Livy's Roman History to be

committed

VI. PART II.

speak of the illiberal ignorance which several pre- CENT. lates affected, and which they injudiciously confounded with Christian simplicity [e]; even those who applied themselves to the study and propagation of the sciences, were for the most part, extremely unskilful and illiterate; and the branches of learning taught in the schools were inconsiderable, both as to their quality and their number [f]. Greek literature was almost every where neglected; and those, who by profession, had devoted themselves to the culture of Latin erudition, spent their time and labour in grammatical subtilties and quibbles, as the pedantic examples of Isodorus and Cassiodorus abundantly shew. Eloquence was degraded into a rhetorical bombast, a noisy kind of declamation which was composed of motley and frigid allegories and barbarous terms, as may even appear from several parts of the writings of those superior geniuses who surpassed their contemporaries in precision and elegance, such as Boethius, Cassiodorus, Ennodius, and others. As to the other liberal arts. they shared the common calamity; and as they were now cultivated, had nothing very liberal or elegant in their appearance, consisting entirely in a few dry rules, which, instead of a complete and finished system, produced only a ghastly and lifeless skeleton.

of philo

sophy de

III. Philosophy fared still worse than litera- The study ture; for it was entirely banished from all the seminaries which were under the inspection and cried. government of the ecclesiastical order. The greatest part of these zealots looked upon the study of philosophy, not only as useless, but even perni

cious

committed to the flames. See Gabriel Liron, Singularités Histor. et Litter. tom. i. p. 166.

[e] Mabillon. Præf. ad Sac. i. Benedict. p. 46.

[F] See M. Aur. Cassiodori Liber de sceptem Disciplinis, which is extant among his works.