that though even the Church should fall into Idolatry we cannot be saved if we separate from it And I say although even the Church of Rome should have Reason at the bottom and were not Idolatrous and that we were out in our Separation we should not hazard our Salvation by continuing as we are Men are every where well where they have Christianity and the marrow and substance of it and 't is a folly to imagine that the Salvation of men depends upon the humor of their Guides It may be therefore that Luther and Calvin were mistaken i. e. That the corruption of the Church of Rome was not great enough to oblige the Faithful to go out of her let us suppose they had done better to leave things as they were I do nevertheless maintain that at this day you do not in any wise hazard your Salvation by continuing where they have placed you because however it be you have Christianity in its integrity you have it wholly pure and uncorrupt In every Society where that is found a man may be saved after whatsoever manner it be formed The Idea which men have formed of Schism for many Ages past is the most false that can be imagined but besides the falshood of it 't is the most dangerous and cruel Chimera that could be found Every Society would be Catholick Church to the exclusion of all others The Church of Rome pretends thus far for her self The Greek Church makes no less pretence thereto He that goes out of this Church breaks the Unity and he that breaks it is no longer in the Church Now he who is no longer in the Church is no longer in a state and way of Salvation whatever he say and whatever he do Behold what they say behold the Chimera We must therefore rectifie this Idea of Schism according to the Unity which we have given you The Unity of the Universal Church does not subsist within the bounds of one certain Communion nor in adherence to certain Pastors to the exclusion of all others but in the Unity of Spirit Doctrine Sacraments and Evangelical Ministry in general i. e. of Pastors declaring the Truth of the Gospel What must be done then to make a Schism with respect to the Church Universal He must renounce the Christian Doctrine the Sacraments of the Church and the Gospel Ministry that is to say He must be an Apostate or an Heretick But every Society that goes out of another and greater Society of which it was a part makes no Schism with respect to the Church Universal whilst it retains the Doctrine the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Gospel it goes not out of the Church because it carries the Church with it and it carries the Church with it because it carries Christianity with it It carries say I the Church with it in such a manner nevertheless that it leaves it in the Society which it leaves for leaving true Christianity there it leaves the true Church there also And the advantage of being the Church and of having Christianity is a Privilege which may be possessed intire and without prejudice to other Christian Societies We must therefore know that there is an Vniversal and Particular Schism Particular Schism is a Separation from a particular Church a Universal Schism is a Separation from the Universal Church Universal Schism consists in the Renunciation of the Universal Church by renouncing her Doctrine Sacraments and Ministry For example If the one half of Christians should separate from the other and set up a new Gospel according to which Moses should be set side by side with Jesus Christ the legal Ceremonies re-established the Evangelical Ministry should be changed into the Ministry of Priests after the Order of Aaron the Sacraments of the Church should be joyned to the Sacraments of the Old Testament it were certain that this would be a true Schism for these Men would renounce the Doctrine the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Gospel The Mahometans without renouncing Jesus Christ and calling him false Prophet have set up a Prophet superior to him and receive the Impostures of Mahomet admit Circumcision and reject Baptism have made a Religion truly and essentially different from that of Christ's 'T is therefore a true universal Schism The Socinians who have renounced almost all the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion who despise and neglect the Sacraments by going out of the Church are become Schismaticks and true Schismaticks with respect to the Church Universal for they have not carried the Church with them because they have not carried Christianity with them According to this Idea Universal Schism or Schism with respect to the Universal Church doth not essentially differ from Heresie and Apostacy Particular Schism is when a Man separates from a particular Church be it for some Point of Doctrine be it for some quarrel about Discipline be it for some personal Differences of the Guides among themselves Of this sort of Schisms there is an infinite number of Examples In the Second Age there was a Schism between the Church of Rome and the Church of Asia about a controversie of Ceremonies about the day on which Easter ought to be observed The Churches of Asia maintained that the Christian Passover ought to be observed on the same day that the Jews observed theirs and they said they held it as a Tradition from St. John. The Church of Rome on the contrary said that Christians ought to observe Easter on the Lord's-day following the Jewish Passover And for the sake of this goodly Controversie Victor Bishop of Rome was so rash as to separate the Churches of Asia from his Communion This Schism continued not only until the Council of Nice but a very long time after for mention is made of the Quartodecimani in the General Council of Ephesus against Nestorius in the year 431. So they called those who celebrated Easter with the Jews on the 14th day of the Month of March. In the Third Age Novatian formed a considerable Schism about a Point of Discipline viz. Whether we ought to receive those who fell in times of Persecution to the Peace of the Church This Schism continued a long time We find this Schism continuing amidst all the great troubles that were betwixt the Arrians and the Orthodox the union of Opinions that was between the Novatians and the Catholicks with respect to the Doctrine of Arrius did not put a period unto it In the same Age the Donatists made another Schism in Africa about the choice of a Bishop of Carthage Two Parties being formed about it a Division was made it spread through all Africa and continued many Ages There happened another in the beginning of the Fifth Age by one named Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople who taught there were two Persons as well as two Natures in Christ Another was made a little while after by Eutyches Abbot of a Monastery in Constantinople who desiring to oppose Nestorius who distinguished two Persons
the Woolf coming fled away and he alledging his own Exemple she said that she would not depart out of the State at least till the King commanded her and that she hoped that God would give her the Grace to surmount all and abide firm After that they had subverted all the Churches of that Country The Intendant Le Bret M. le Camus Bishop of Grenoble and at this time Cardinal the Marquess de la Trousse Commander of the Troops in Dauphine went to see her in her Castle du Monotier of Clermont they disputed against her they made Requests to her with Promise and Threats she defended her self vigorously against all their Attaques and in the end they left her Some days after they sent to take her away by the Dragoons to confine her in a Covent at Grenoble Seeing she was always the same they threatned to send her to Valence and to put her into the hands of Rapine she answered that she would go whether they pleased even to the Fire but not to the Mass In the end they executed one part of the said threatning upon her sending her to Valence but not to the Butchery of Rapine they put her into a Convent of the Religious with a prohibition to permit her to speak to any of them which they call the New Converts This Lady suffered her Removal and her Imprisonment in that Cloister with so much patience and sweetness that 't is said she abated the rage and fury of her Persecutors She entertained the Religious with so much Decency and spake to them such handsome things of our Religion that she won at first their Heart and almost perswaded them to be Christians The Intendant and the Bishop of Valence understanding that this Prisoner triumpht over her Goalers gave order that she should be fetcht from the Convent where she was put and be removed into another which was done and Madam de Bardonnanche behaved her self there after the same manner there she made also the same Progress upon the Spirits of her new Hostesses They took her also from that Convent and confined her in another in the same place with a Command not to speak to her nor to â—uffer her to speak to any body Since we have lâ—arnt by one of our Brethren well worthy of Credit who came lately from that Province that there hath been a new Order to remove her into another Convent at Vif a Town which is not above two leagues from Grenoble I could increase these Relations with divers Circumstances and with others like them as that of Monsieur de Sainct Cross the Son of a Counsellor of the Parliament of Grenoble who hath been at Pierre Size these five Months because he would not change that also if the three Pastors of Orange Mr. Chion Mr. Gondran Mr. Petit and Mr. Onet Pastor of Courteson near Orange who have long been kept in the Prisons of Valence and who are now at Pierre Size though they be not able to reproach them for having done any thing against the King in whose State they lived not and who testifie an admirable Constancy although very many did yield before their Eyes That of Monsieur de Beauregard Burgess of St. Anthony near to St. Marcelin in the same Province who after he had seen all his Goods devoured which were very great hath suffered the most cruel torments in his Body until they had hardened and shrunk up the Nerves of his Legs by the violence of the approaching Fire and had laid him upon a pile of wood saying unto him that he should be burnt alive in one word whom they had tormented till he lost his Reason who being at length set at liberty is happily retired out of the Kingdom into Switzerland That of Monsieur Delis a Gentleman of Trienes in Dauphine who chose rather to suffer Martyrdom and hath actually suffered it in the Month of January 1686 at Grenoble rather than change But of this enough for this time News from Nismes written June 17th 1687. EVery day they bring Prisoners from Lions into this City and once or twice in a Month they condemn to the Gallies those which had abjured and communicated and afterward were taken attempting to get out of the Kingdom As for them which neither have nor will abjure they condemn them to America The Prisons and the Tower of Vennatiere which is a kind of Prison are always full of these poor miserable Creatures They are very much relieved by those in this City which have done what they would never do it is not known why God has left them here without it be for the relief of those Confessors of Christ which would dye else by Famine in Prisons About eight days since they carried twenty one Persons some Women and some young Girls that were condemned to Marseille viz. nineteen for America and two for the Gallies on whom they bestowed great Charity Every Month we make a contribution for the General Hospital which is established in this City in the Church and in the Houses adjoyning which belong to the Consistory every one according to his Ability Since the eighth of May we have had the Regiment of Vivonne on which day they begun to work upon the Cittadel tho' that were Ascension-day and they take great pains therein They have enclosed from the form of Paulian unto the Wall of the City drawing a Line from the Tower of Corconne unto the Watch-Tower at the end of the Tennis-Court Two days since there was a Detachment of five Companies to go to Valeraube where there was a numerous Assembly in the Presence of the Priest of the place and before the Sermon the Priest would dispute with him that was to Preach and after that he would hear his Sermon We know not yet what was the issue of that Affair In this City whilst M. the Intendant was here they say there are Assemblies notwithstanding all the ill Treatment with which they have been continually exercised They say that the Daughters of Mr. Ducros and of Andemar are out of the hands of Rapine since their fall through their ill treatment But Mrs. Parelle persists with an incredible constancy When her cruel Hangman said to her Madam I am astonisht that you can suffer such Miseries She answered him again As for me I suffer nothing this is nothing Jesus Christ hath suffered much more for me Since the writing of this Letter we are informed of two faithful Persons which have suffered Martyrdom in the said City of Nismes the 26th of the last Month the name of the one is Mr. Manuel the other is called Iloque You shall have the History of their Martyrdom some other time We could also give you the News of our Brethren of Metz if this Pastoral Letter could contain the Copy of that which was written from that place In the mean time cease not to pour out your Prayers in the presence of the Great God for the Consolation of these afflicted Persons July
is also a Spiritaal Romance made up of Stories which do no Honor neither to S. Anthony nor S. Athanasius nor in general to the Christian Religion I know not what Spirit of Fanaticism and Melancholy does mingle it self therein they had or they feigned themselves to have Visions the Devils appeared to them they tempted and sollicited them to fleshly Sins and when they could not prevail upon them they beat them cruelly The Abbot Serenus in Cassian says * Cass Collat. 7. cap. 23. As soon as we have formed a Convent of Eight or Ten Monks the fury of the Devil rages in such a manner against them that they experience his Assaults very frequently and in a plain and obvious manner for which reason they dare not sleep all together but whilst some sleep others watch To this may be joyned a Spirit of Superstition which produces Excesses some whereof are capable of horror and astonishment A Monk named Batteus * Sozom. lib. 6. cap. 34. mortified himself through Fasting to that degree and measure what Worms were bred in his Gums and came out of his Teeth another named Cyrus †Ibid. lived Seventy years without tasting any Bread. Another named Acepsemus * Theod. lib. 4. cap. 28. lived Sixty years shut up in a Cell never going out or being seen of any one One named Macarius ‖ Socrat. lib. 4. cap. 23. during the space of Twenty years lived by Bread and Water he did eat and drink by weight he fastened his Body by night to a Wall that he might not sleep Another called Dorotheus * Sozom. lib. 6. cap. 29. made it a thing necessary and a part of Devotion never to stretch out his Legs upon his Bed. Another called Didymus lived to the Age of Ninety years without speaking to or seeing any Person Another named Pior * Ibid. 6. having made a Vow never to see any Person his Sister after Fifty years passionately longed to see him and he was obliged by his Superiors to give her that satisfaction He came therefore and presented himself at the Door of his Sister he made himself seen to her but he shut his Eyes that he might not see her and after he had repeated certain Psalms he went his way Another Sirnamed Stilites * Evag. lib 1. cap. 13. because of the Pillar on which he lived spent Thirty Seven years thereon And many afterwards in imitation of him did the same things and obtained the Sirname of Stilites †Niceph. lib. 11. Amonius a Companion of S. Anthony being chosen Bishop cut off his Ear to the end that he might not be so and declared he would cut out his Tongue if they pressed him farther thereon A Monk named Thomas * Soz. lib. 6. an Inhabitant of Thebais lived Thirty years without speaking Another Monk named Paul †Ibid. in his Devovotions imposed a necessity upon himself of making three Hundred Prayers to God every day and that he might not miscount he had three Hundred little Flints whereof he threw one out of his Bosom at every Prayer that he made Behold what was the Character of the Monks of the Fourth Age and behold that which at this time men report to the Honor of these poor Ideots which did pass for great Saints or of these Hypocrites which did impose upon mankind But can a Man read without horror that which Evagrius reports concerning the customs and manner of Life of the Monks of Jerusalem in the time that the Empress Eudoxia Wife of Theodosius the younger went thither Some of them made a War upon themselves so cruel that oftentimes they remained upon the ground without appearance of Life and were taken for unburied Carcases others lodged themselves in Holes where they could neither lye nor stand others hid themselves in Caves and made it a piece of Devotion to live among wild Beasts others both Men and Women stript themselves naked covering only their shameful Parts and in this nakedness exposed themselves to be roasted in the Beams of the Sun from Morning to Evening in the Summer and in the Winter they continued in the same estate exposing themselves to the severest rigors of cold they ate nothing of what Men do use to eat they fed on Grass like Oxen they were also called Boscoi i. e. Eaters of Herbs and in time they became altogether like Beasts not preserving the very appearance of Men and human shape if they saw Men afar off they ran to hide themselves as from Bears in some Cave or they secured themselves upon Rocks with the swiftness of a wild Goat But all this is nothing in comparison of what Evagrius adds There are Monks who to make it appear that they had extinguished Concupiscence conversed in the World promiscuously Men and Women all naked they went into Brothel Houses into the most infamous places they lay together both Men and Women the Men bathed themselves with Women and Women with Men and all this in publick view without Shame and without covering their Faces Besides the Madness is there not Impudence in these Devotions and must not a Man have a depraved taste in matters of Piety to look on these Extravagancies with admiration as at that time they did Besides all this the Spirit of Lying and Error seized on these Men a Man may say truly that all the Depravations of the Christian Religion did take their Original from Monks In the Fifth and Sixth Age they became Anthropomorphites and Originists and those who have any knowledg of the History of the Church do know that they stirred up many Troubles there They maintained their Opinion and their Friends not only by Words and Clamors but by Blows Socrates reports that during the Controversies that Cyril Bishop of Alexandria had with Orestes Governour of Egypt * Soc. lib. 11. cap. 14. five Hundred Monks came from the Mountain Nitria to the City for the assistance of Cyril their Bishop They stirred up a Sedition against the Governour one of these Monks called Ammonius gave him a knock on the Head with a Flint whereby he lost a great deal of Blood. There are no Heresies or Superstitions of which they may not be called the Authors 't is they which introduced the Superstition of invocating Saints and adoring Relicks Eunapius a Pagan Author who lived at the end of the Fourth Age saith That in Egypt they appointed Monks in the Village Cannopus to worship Slaves so they called the Martyrs And S. Austin in the Book concerning the Work of Monks says That in his time a Swarm of Monks scattered themselves abroad every where and made Merchandise of the Bones of Martyrs It was they who brought Images into the Church and that Worship which gives so much Grief to Souls which are jealous of the Love of God and so much Scandal to Christians Also in the War between the Breakers of Images and the Worshipers of Images they were the principal
Agents The Monks at this day think it an Honor to acquaint us with the Combats and the Travels which the Men of their Order have sustained to hinder the Worship of Images from falling 'T was in the Convent of Corbie and in the Brains of Paschasius the Monk that the Opinion of Transubstantiation had its Birth When that new sort of Monks which are called Mendicants came into the World a Man cannot tell the Evils which they caused there the Superstitions that they brought and the Corruptions which they introduced into it It is from them that those Excesses whereof the honest Men of the Church of Rome themselves at this day have an abhorrence took their Original These Excesses say I which respect the Worship of the blessed Virgin the Invocation of Saints and the Adoration of Images and Relicks Excesses which are gone so high by the assistance of the Monks that all which is most odious in Pagan Idolatry did never go beyond it 'T is that whereof your Converters themselves are at an Agreement with us 't is of that which they tell you that we ought to make no use that we ought not to impute those things to the Church which were the foolish imaginations of the Friers of the last Ages and the Devotions of Monks as they themselves call them and that honest Men did never approve 'T is a thing far enough from Truth that the Church of Rome never approved these Excesses But it is not a thing upon which we have any pâ—rpose to stay at present It is sufficient for you that it is evil by the confession of your Converters and that this Corruption took its original from Monks They are the same Men which have dishonored Christianity by a an Historical Theology more shameful and fabulous than was that of the Pagans and Poets 'T is to them that we owe the Legends the Lives of Saints the Châ—onicles and Annals the Orders of S. Francis the Jacobites and the Carmelites in which Works the least trace of Truth and Purity is not to be seen but a heap of ridiculous Fictions impertinent Miracles and filthy Fables whereof at this day Men of the Character of Canus Bishop of the Canaries and de Launoy are ashamed and make no scruple to confute them in all their Shapes and Forms Do not these Gentlemen also confess that the Monks have been always the Instruments of the Violence of Popes and the Incendiaries of Christendom They were the Men that preached the Croisades against pretended Hereticks 'T was they that kindled the Fires and committed the Massacres They were those that mutinied the People against those Kings and Emperors that would not obey the Pope They were they that seized on the Rights of Bishops and favoured the Pope in all those ways whereof he served himself to oppress the other Bishops They have withdrawn themselves from the Authority of their Ordinances by Immunities obtained in the Court of Rome They have withdrawn Confessions from the ordinary Pastors They were the Masters of the Chairs and publick Teachers during the space of four Hundred or five Hundred Years To conclude 't is certain they have always been the most potent Supports of that Throne of Iniquity which hath raised it self in the Church For their Manners I can make it appear by Testimonies that cannot be reproached that never were Lives so debauched as those of the Monks that during more than seven or eight Hundred Years they were the Sinks of all the Impurities that could be imagined and we have the Confession of the Arnolds the Maimbourghs and other famous Defenders of Popery in this Age concerning it They add that it is not so now and that the Convents at this day are well governed and the Monastick Life very clean and innocent He must be very bold to advance a matter of Fact so little known If there be some Convents reformed there are a great many others that are not so I have a little enlarged my self on this Article concerning the original of Monks their History their Spirit and their Conduct because I know 't is a Snare in which many Persons shut up in Convents have unhappily fall'n They have written to us from thence that they have been much moved with the great Piety which they have found in these Houses with the Mortification of the Nuns with their constancy in Prayer with their Humility with the continual elevation of their Hearts to God and with their entire renunciation of the World. And they have given us to understand that this hath been the principal Motive of their Conversion And even very devout and pious persons who thanks be to God do yet persevere in the Truth have not been able to escape some surprize by these fair Appearances and Formalities God is witness that we have no intention to lessen the Reputation of any Person in particular and yet much less of these Nuns of whom so much good is spoken we wish that there were more of truth therein And if it be so that there is so much virtue in Some of them we hope that God will not suffer them to die in the sad estate wherein they are But we do advise our Brethren and Sisters to be on their guard and beware of this Temptation and to consider First That these Mortifications wherewith they seem to be so much charmed are human Devotions upon which God doth not pour down his Blessing It may be seen by that which we have reported concerning the Mortifications of the first Monks how far this miserable Spirit of superstition and false Devotion may go That kind of Life observed by the Monks of Attrappe for example doth not find its Original or Model in the Gospel and they are those Worships of which it will be said Who hath required these things at your hands We must not make it a thing of Merit to be more wise than God than Jesus Christ and his Apostles and do more than they have done It is a folly and madness to believe that a Man is more acceptable to God by shutting himself up in a place where he may see no body where he speaks to no body where he renounces his Friends and Relations where he deprives himself of the society of good Men whose conversation might assist his piety 2. I do intreat them to consider that in these kind of things the false Religions go farther than that which is true Ask your Converters and they will not deny that the Mortifications of the Mahometan Monks and those of the penitent Indians and Mexicans are infinitely more cruel to the Body than are those of our most mortified Europeans so they are at least equivocal things with respect to which we must be extreamly upon our guards 3. In the third place it must be known That there are depths in the conduct of God which cannot be fathomed 't is his pleasure that we walk always in the midst of Thorns and among Snares 't is for