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A36910 The Young-students-library containing extracts and abridgments of the most valuable books printed in England, and in the forreign journals, from the year sixty five, to this time : to which is added a new essay upon all sorts of learning ... / by the Athenian Society ; also, a large alphabetical table, comprehending the contents of this volume, and of all the Athenian Mercuries and supplements, etc., printed in the year 1691. Dunton, John, 1659-1733.; Hove, Frederick Hendrick van, 1628?-1698.; Athenian Society (London, England) 1692 (1692) Wing D2635; ESTC R35551 984,688 524

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be modest sweet and moderate whereupon he much diaspproves the heat of most of the Controvertists and the false delicateness of some Divines who make capital errours of every thing and who as soon as they see any stumble or to swerve from their Opinion endeavour to make him be considered as an Enemy to Truth to the good of the State and the Salvation of Souls 4. He sheweth that order is the life of Books and that those who have no method have but confused Ideas of what they advance In the fourth Chapter he examines wherein consists the solidity of Writing In the 5th How clear it ought to be In the 6th He shews how briefness is acceptable and the difference there is betwixt Plagiaries Centons and those who make a judicious use of their learning In the 7th he treats of Reading in general and proves that it is so far from doing any injury to Divines that they cannot throughly understand the Sacred nor Ecclesiastical Authors if they are not well acquainted with profane Writers The 8th speaks of the choice of books and how to read them with advantage and the 9th of several famous Library-keepers and of divers Princes who favoured Learning II. The second Part treats in five Chapters 1. Of the hatred People have for books and of its principal causes sloath avarice 2. The love of novelty which makes us despise the labours of the Antients 3. The pride and foolish vanity of the Learned who contemn one another 4. The mutual envy they bear one another 5. In fine he endeavours to find the means to shelter Authors from the envy or hatred which may be conceived against their Works and speaks of the different destiny of books We have two other Treatises of our Author Otia Theologica Concionator Sacer. A Voyage to Dalmatia Greece and the Levant by Mr. Wheeler enrich'd with curious Medals and Figures of the chief Antiquities which are to be found in those Places The Description of the Customs Cities Rivers Sea-Ports and of all that is most remarkable therein Translated from the English Amsterdam for John Wolters Bookseller in 12. 607 p. T IS not above Ten or Twelve Years since the Celebrated Mr. Spon gave a very handsom Relation of this Voyage to the Levant with Mr. Wheeler Which hath receiv'd such applause from the Publick that there 's no reason to fear this will be less welcome For as Mr. Wheeler's Curiosity hath carry'd him to many more Subjects than the other has treated on so he likewise having made a longer abode in those Countries that he describes has much more enriched and diversifyed his History Whereas Mr. Spon engaged himself chiefly to the Observation of the Monuments of Antiquity and made it his particular Study It may be said of our Author that he forgot nothing that was considerable in any place he pass'd through of what nature soever With the exact Descriptions he hath given of the Principal Monuments he saw he has very agreeably added an Account of all the Plants of each place the Cities most of the Villages Mountains Plains Sea-Ports Rivers and all that he met with remarkable in his Voyage He carefully observed the Genius Manners and Religion of the Inhabitants the nature and price of the Commodities of the Country what Foreign Goods sell there to the best Advantage with the distance of the Ways and many other things of this nature As he opened that both the Old and New Geographers were deceiv'd in the Situation of divers places so he Marks what he thought the most agreeable to Truth He gave himself the trouble to draw out a new Map of Achaia incomparably more Correct than was ever seen before The whole Work is divided into two Books each of which is subdivided into three others The first contains 1. The History of our Authors Voyage from Venice to Constantinople 2. A Description of Constantinople the Neighbouring places and their Antiquities 3. The particulars of his Voyage through the Lesser Asia In the second Book is comprehended 1. The Voyage from Zant to Athens and through divers parts of Greece 2. The Description of Athens and it's Antiquities 3. Several Voyages from Athens to Corinth c. With an Account of whatsoever he saw remarkable therein Being at Venice that these two Illustrious Friends entred upon their Voyage together Mr. Wheeler thought he was oblig'd to begin his History with a short Description of the Original of this great Republick of it's Progress Losses and in fine the Estate it was in at 1675. when they were there The first considerable Place they visited in their course was Pola where they found divers Monuments of Antiquity which evidently shew'd it to be one of the Antientest Towns of Istria and that it was formerly a free State At one of the best places of Dalmatia which is the Chief City thereof call'd Zara they found nothing less considerable which place is more secured by the number and courage of the Morlaques the natural Inhabitants of the Country of whom the greatest part of the Garison are compos'd than by the goodness of it's Fortifications they having an irreconcilable hatred to the Turks But one of the most curious Pieces of Antiquity that this Country affords is the residue of a Palace that Dioclesian caus'd to be built near Salone which was the place of his Birth that he might pass the rest of his Life in this happy Retirement when he had renounced the Empire Those who have form'd an advantagious Idea of Ithica because it was the Country of Vlysses and the particular place of his Residence will be surpriz'd to hear our Author affirm it to be a pittiful little Isle that wou'd be a perfect Desert if a People they call Thiaki went not from time to time to cultivate it In this last is seen the Ruines of an Old Castle which the Thiaki pretend was formerly the Palace of Vlysses Samos that 's now known only under the Name of Cephalonia was the greatest Isle under the Command of this Prince For according to Mr. Wheeler 't is 60 Leagues in Circumference altho' Strabo allowed it to be but 300 Furlongs which makes not above 19 Leagues and Pliny but 22 Leagues Zant formerly call'd Zacynthos is nothing nigh so large since the utmost extent is but 15 Leagues 'T is very fruitful and nothing cou'd be added to make it more agreeable were it not for the Earthquakes which in the greatest part of the Spring are very often twice a week From this Island now comes the greatest part of those Raisins without Stones that they call Corants the Plant of which Fruit is not like our Gooseberrys as without reason has been an Opinion generally receiv'd but a Vine differing very little from the other sort of Raisins At the foot of one o' the Hills of this Island is a Fountain which to admiration casts forth with it's streams that are very bright and clear lumps of Pitch in Quantities so great
prejudicing in the least the Superiority of a Wife Mahomet had been but a little Politick if in lieu of permitting them to have four he had commanded them to have so many and if the contrary were desired of him as a favour it would be as Phaeton did Poenam Phaeton pro munere poscis They are marry'd there without seeing each other and a Man does not see his Wife until after the Consummation of Matrimony and often he does not consummate it for some days after she is brought to him because she hides her self among the Women and will not let the Husband enjoy her These Forms are more frequent among People of Quality because in their Opinion it is like a debauched Person to yield the Last Favour so soon especially the Women of the Royal Family there must be sometimes whole Months to prevail with them It is very probable says Mr. Chardin That this way of Marrying without seeing each other should produce very unhappy Effects but happens perfectly contrary for it may be said That there are more lucky Marriages in those Countries where they do not see the Women at all than in them where they are seen and frequented The reason is evident when we do not see another Mans Wife we do not so soon lose the Love we may have for our own And the Reflection is very good I shall say nothing of several other particularities which the Author mentions here in this great Chapter He reports of the Governour of Irivan which is a little better than the Answer of this which the Ambassador of Vi●qufort speaks of that upon the demand made him what he would have the Present consist of that was intended him he Answered in Bills of Exchange This Governour understanding That the Box which M. Chardin presented him with was worth 10 Pistols he desired him to take it again and to give him the value of it in Keys Springs and Strings of Watches this and several other things to be seen in that Journal shews that Covetousness is so predominant with the Eastern People that it puts them on a thousand base little Actions If this Article had not been a little too long already I would have related many other things out of this Volume The Author shews much skill in Geography and gives us the Description of some considerable Towns with the Plans of them and an Abridgment of their Histories which may satisfie well enough the desire of any curious Reader He represents us the City of Tauris as very beautiful there are 250 Mosques in it and a place where the Turks may put ●0000 Men in Battalia He prefers their Opinion before any others that will have it to be the Antient Town of Echatane The Letters of Recommendation given him and his Notes on them are not the least curious part of this Book For they help to teach us the Genius of the Persians There we learn that they call their Kings the Vicars of God because they pretend That the Race that Reigned these 250 Years sprung from Ali Son-in-Law and Successor of Mahomet Casbin the Country of the famous Locman the Eastern Aesope appears with great Pomp but it would be nothing in comparison of another Town called Rey if it were true that Rey was what the Persian Geographers maintain it to be upon the credit of all the Eastern Authors who say That in the Sixth Age of Christianity the Town of Rey was divided into 96 Parts whereof each had 46 Streets every Street 400 Houses and 10 Mosques and that the Town had 6400 Colledges 16600 Baths 15000 lesser Mosques 12000 Mills 17000 Channels and 13000 Caravanserais The Magies Chronicles affirm That Chus Grand-Son of Noah was the Founder of Rey and lay'd the first Stone under the Ascendant of Scorpion This is no small comfort to our Northern and Southern Fablers for if on one part they are concerned to be called Dreamers they will have on the other side the satisfaction of having Companions all over the World For what concerns the Magnificence of the Mosques and Mausolees of Com They are not Dreams but Realities since the Author professes himself an eye-witness thereof The Tomb of Fathme Daughter of Mouza-Cazem one of the 12 Califes which the Persians believe were the lawful Successors of Mahomet after Ali is in the chiefest of these Mosques with those of King Abas and Sefi There is but very little wanting in the Worship of Fathme among the Persians to equal it to what most of the Christians pay to the Mother of the Son of God This appears by the Prayers that Pilgrims of Com rehearse and the People are persuaded that the Virgin Fathme was transported to Heaven both Body and Soul yet they do not celebrate the Feast of her Assumption Mr. Chardin gives us in French some of these Prayers as also the famous Elegy of Haly made by the Learned Haran Cary This Panegyrick is writ in great Letters of Gold in the Gallery of the Tomb of Abas and is a piece of Eloquence wherein may be seen not only the Genius of the Persian Poetry but also Transports of the Mahometan Devotion 'T is in Songs divided by disticks the first is all upon Mahomet the six other upon Ali. If I were minded to make a more ample Addition of the Spanish Rotomandos many places of this Poem should be copied out To speak seriously there are some turns of Expressions that have much Force in them as when to express the Beauty of Ali the Poet assures us That God has assigned his Love us a Ioynture to the Ladies of Paradice Naturalists will not find what they look for here but they may examine the White Pot Work of Com and they will find enough to busy themselves in it refreshes Water in Summer very well by the means of a continual Transpiration The first time that this Pot is used a Quart transpires in 6 hours and then less and less afterwards until at last the Pores are closed by gross Matter that is in the Water that stops its passage through the Pores and then a new Pot must be us'd or else the Water would stink in the other The Author set forth from Com the 16th of Iune 1672. and arrived at Ispahan the 23 d. And here the First Volume ends it is to be sold at Amsterdam Reprinted in Twelves at Wolfgang's Reflections on the cruel PERSECUTIONS that the Reformed Church suffer'd in FRANCE through the Conduct and Acts of the last Assembly of the Clergy of that Kingdom with an Examination of the pretended Calumnies whereof the Clergy complains to the King in the Profession of Faith PErhaps there never was seen so strange a difference as is found now between the Catholicks and the Reformed who write upon the Conversions in France The first maintain that they do all mildly and with Christian Charity and upon this make continual Exclamations and Panegyricks The last affirm That they force them by threatning or corrupt them by
the Dovaniers themselves and that before he arrived at the Caucase there were no incouragements to go to Travel into these Countreys This Mountain is very famous the top is always covered with Snow and is inhabited and the passage over it is Eight Leagues all the rest of it abounds with Honey Corn Gum good Wines and Fruits Hogs and other great Cattle There are many Villages and most of the Inhabitants are Christians live after the Gregorian Rule and enjoy their ease Before we come to the Description of Georgia it is pleasant to see the Author meet his Comrade after a thousand troubles with the Riches that he brought out of Europe Georgia reached heretofore from Taunis and Erzorum to Tanais and was called Albanie but it is less now there are some that would have its Name derived from that of St. George the great Saint of all the Christians of the Gregorian-Order others will have it derived from the Inhabitants who were called Georgi by the Greeks which signifies Labourers it has but few Towns The Kingdom of Caket had many heretofore It is properly the antient Iberia that was ruined by the People of Mount Caucase and as it 's said by the Amazons The Author says he has seen none in Georgia that ever was in the Amazons Country but that he has heard much of them and has seen at the Princes Palace the Habit of a big Woman made of thick Woollen and of a particular form which they said was that of an Amazon killed near Caket in the last Wars The Sons of the Prince of Georgia understanding by Mr. Chardin what History says of the Amazons said that they were some of the wandring Scythians like the Turcomans and Arabians and have transferred the Soveraignty to their Wives as did the Achinese and that these Queens were served by some of their own sex that followed them every where after the manner that Georgia and its Inhabitants are spoken of here it would move one to apply to them the Proverb touching the Kingdom of Naples Il regno Neapolitano e un delicato paradiso Mahabitato da gli dianoli In effect Georgia is as fertile a Countrey as can be one may live there deliciously and cheap the Bread is as good as in any place of the World the Fruit is very excellent and of all sorts abundance of very good Cattle Fowl innumerable and incomparably good the wild Boar is as delicate there as in Colchis and there can no better thing be eaten than the Hogs which the common people feed on there is Fresh-water-fish and Sea-fish in great quantity and the best in the World For 8 Livres may be bought a Horse-load of the best Wine in the Country that is to say 300 pound weight All this resembles an Earthly Paradice but if we consider the Inhabitants they will be found like Devils only except that they are Civil Grave Moderate and very Fair The Author Remarks That he did not see one ugly Person of either Sex but Angelick Faces and that nothing can be Painted more Charming than the Georgines Nevertheless he adds that they all Paint they generally have a great deal of Natural Wit but being ill brought up they become very Ignorant and Vicious Cheats Knaves Traitors Ingratefull Proud and strangely Impudent in Lying Irreconcileable in their Hatreds Drunkards Usurers immodest to the highest Degree The Church-men drink as well as the rest and have with them handsome Slaves which they make their Concubines and what is the height of all Corruption none is scandalized because it is Authorized by the general custom The Author says that the Guardian of the Capucins told him that he heard it said by the Catholicks for so are called the Patriarchs of Georgia that whoever was not drunk at the Feast of Easter and Christmas c. does not pass for a good Christian and ought to be excommunicated The Women are neither less evil or vicious they have a great eagerness for Men and have a greater part in this Torrent of Immodesty than is to be found in any other part of the World Every one has liberty in Georgia to live according to his own Religion to discourse of it and maintain it There are there more Armenians than Georgians there are also Greeks Iews Turks Persians Indians Tartars Muscovites and Europians The Religion of the Georgians is much the same with theirs of Mingrelia but that they Fast more and have longer Prayers and look after their Churches better The greatest part live on remote and inaccessible Mountains they see them and salute them at the distance of three or four Leagues but hardly ever go thither and what is yet more ridiculous tho' the Prince is a Mahometan yet he fills all Benefices generally he places his Friends in them and it is his Brother that is Patriarch now without doubt it would be known how this Catholico first renounc'd Mahometanism and it is very pleasing to see how the Georgian Princes have become Mahometans and Subjects to the Emperor of Persia The Account is very distinct and in few words opens all the History of that Country from Ismael Sophi to this very time There we learn among other things that the Kings of Persia soon converted them by inflicting great Torments upon them that continued in Christianity and in giving great Advantages to such as abjured Iesus Christ and this was done with not so much Reluctancy as quitting the Protestant for Romish Religion but as there never was Country or Age wherein were not found some firm in the Religion that they believed good so there was a Princess of Georgia that neither Iron nor Fire could shake Abas the Great would not received the Lie but sent Orders to the Governour of Chiras to make her a Mahometan at any Price the Governour omitted nothing to overcome the constancy of this Princess he made her suffer 8 Years Martyrdom by so much the more cruel that he renewed her Torments every day she died at last upon Flaming Coals in the Year 1624. her Body was thrown to the Birds of the Air but the Augustins sent it secretly to the Prince her Son she was called Kela●a●e and very few have imitated her The Princess of Georgia and great part of the Lords do now profess Mahometanism some to imploy themselves at the Persian Court others for Pensions and some that they might marry their Daughters to the King or make them enter into the Queen's Service The head City of Georgia is called Tifflis there are fourteen Churches which is much in a Country of so little Devotion but that is not the most surprizing It is more admirable that these People should be so much against the Building of Mosques the King of Persia their Soveraign could never compass the Building of one at Tifflis The People rise presently and being armed ruine the Work and abuse the workmen they thought to build one at the Fort to accustom the People to the sight of
begins to apply his Rules for Criticism to the Books of the Bible and proves by them that Moses was really the Author of the Pentateuch since 't is Established by Holy Scripture by the Authority of Iesus Christ by the consent of all Nations and by the Authentick Testimonies of the most Ancient Authors It is necessary to observe that this Dissertation upon the Bible and all the rest of the Book is disposed in such order that each Article contains a following Discourse where he only proposes his opinion and maintains it by some Reasons which all the World agrees to After that is the Notes that include the Proofs and Authorities of what has been advanced in the precedent Article Following this Method the Author to prove that Moses writ the Books that bear his Name Cites in the Notes many passages of the Old and New Testament He says that the Samaritan Pentateuch being writ in ancient Hebrew Characters must necessarily be composed before the Captivity of Babylon where the use of these Characters were lost He relates the Testimonies of Manethon Philocorus Atheneus and other ancient Authors that Iosephus and the Primitive Christians have preserved some passages of to which he adds other Authors of a latter date and whose Works still remain amongst us as St. Strabo the Abridgment of Trogue-Pompeus Iuvenal Pliny Tacitus Longinus Porphirius Iulian c. And from this universal Consent he draws an invincible Argument to prove that Moses writ the Law and that he was the Law-giver of the Iews In the Notes he Answers Eleven Objections which seem to be drawn from the Critical History upon the Old Testament and the Sentiments of some Dutch Divines upon this Book which contains the Reasons of those who pretend that the Pentateuch is a Collection made upon the ancient Memoirs and Writings of Moses but compiled by some other In short he maintains that when they wou'd suppose that the reasons that are alledg'd against the Antiquity of the Pentateuch are all unanswerable they shou'd prove only that there is some Names of Towns or Countries changed some little words inserted to clear Difficulties and in fine that the Narration of the Death of Moses was necessary to be added to finish the History of the Pentateuch We have not the same certainty according to M. Du Pin in respect to the rest of the Historical Books since we are absolutely ignorant of the Authors of ' em The Judgment that he gives of the Book of Iob is that the Foundation of Narration is true But that the manner how this History is related the Stile that it is writ in the Discourses that were held between Iob and his Friends and what is said of his mean condition must be confest to have been much amplifyed and adorned with many feigned Circumstances to render the Narration more agreeable and useful For the Book of Wisdom which is commonly attributed to Solomon he thinks it to be composed by a Grecian that was a Jew who to imitate the Books of Solomon had taken many thoughts from thence In respect to the Book of Ecclesiasticus some have imagin'd that Iosephus acknowledg'd it to be Canonical because he cites a passage out of it in his Second Book against Appion But according to the observation of Mr. Pithou this allegation which is not in the ancient Version of Ruffinus was added to the Text of Iosephus * The Book of Esther was according to some in the Iews Canon but others deny it s ever being there Meliton rejects it and the Six last Chapters of this Book are not in the Hebrew Origen believed they were formerly and that they have since been lost But it is evident they are taken from many places says our Author and that they contain such things as were apparently Collated by some Greeks that were Iews St. Ierom formally rejects the Book of Baruck and denies its being Canonical in his Preface upon Ieremiah The Story of Tobias also is not in any ancient Catalogue placed in the Rank of Canonical Books no more than that of Iudith In a word the ancient Christians followed the Canon of the Iews for the Books of the Old Testament there is none else cited in the New and a great part of these are very often mentioned The first Catalogues of Canonical Books made by the Greek and Latin Ecclesiastick Authors comprehended none but these In the Chronicle of Eusebius the Books of the Maccabees are opposed to those of Holy Writ and placed with Iosephus and Africanus The Book of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus are in the ancient Catalogues placed in the number of such Books as are most useful Except Canonical Nothing can be concluded in favour of their Divinity from any passages of the Fathers since Origen St. Ierom and St. Hillary place them in the number of Apocryphal Books Even from the time of St. Gregory the Great these Books were not in the Canon of the Holy Scripture since this Pope speaks in those terms We do nothing unreasonable in bringing the Testimony of such Books as are not Canonical since they were publisht for the Edification of the Church Many Ecclesiastical Authors both Greek and Latin agree only upon 22 Canonical Books joyning the History of Ruth to the Iudges and the Lamentation of Ieremiah to his Prophesies altho' they lived after the Third Council of Carthage and Innocent the First who placed the Maccabees and other Apocryphal Books in the Canon of Holy Writ Which shews adds the Author that these Definitions were not approved by all Authors nor followed by all Churches until it was intirely determined by the Council of Trent This Ecclesiastical Assembly has this common with others That the last Decrees do still abolish the preceeding ones Besides it is just that the Church of Rome who hath power to make new Articles of Faith should also have power to make those Books Canonical whence they take these new Articles III. In the Third Article of this Dissertation where there is the History of the Hebrew Text the Version of the 70 and other Greek Translators the History of Aristeus is refuted almost by the reasons that are mentioned in the Extract of Mr. Hodi Nevertheless he believes not that it can be absolutely denyed that there had been a Greek Version of the Bible made in the times of Ptolomy Philadelphus because there 's no likelyhood that the Authors of Books attributed to Aristeus and Aristobulus have wholly invented this mater But he rejects as a conjecture without any Ground the Opinion of Father Simon viz. That this Version was called the Version of the Seventy because it was approved by the Sanhedrin He also maintains against the common receiv'd opinion of the Learned that the Caldaick Language was not the only Language spoke by all the Iews at their return from the Babylonish Captivity but that many amongst them did then speak Hebrew and all of 'em understood it but that
the Pope grew obstinate in his Sentiment they would rather quit the Priesthood than Marriage and that Gregory who despised men should take the care of providing himself with Angels to govern the Church These good men without doubt spake with much sincerity and it may be if those who have endeavoured to blacken the conduct of the Reformers in that they have introduced anew the Marriage of Priests would let nature speak they would not say less But it is a great unhappiness and a great prejudice at the same time against the deluders of Virginity to live in a Church whereof they are constrained to defend all the Sentiments unless they would dishonour and destroy themselves In fine the Authors of the time of Hildebrand and those who have written since give him several times the name of Antichrist and it cannot be denied at least but that it is he who hath established the excessive authority of Popes and who the first durst to maintain that they have the power of deposing Kings and to change what they please in the Canons It is no more than may be seen in the Decretals of the Edition of Rome whereof Vsher cites divers scandalous articles He also gives the History of the quarrels which this Pope had with the Emperor Henry IV. and relates all the evil that hath been said of the first And with this he ends the first part of his work which was to have extended to the time in which the Devil hath been let loose II. As it is in the Apocalypse that a thousand years being past the Dragon was to be unloos'd for a little time Vsher begins his second part by the explication of this place and remarks that according to the maxim of Aristotle nothing being called great or little but by relation to another thing the time in which the Dragon was to be unchain'd should be short in comparison of the time during which he had ravaged the World before he had been put in Chains Roman Catholicks demand of Protestants where the Church was then if the Pope was Antichrist Vsher answers that the Church was then in the state in which some Antients and divers Catholick Authors have said that it would be under the Reign of Antichrist St. Augustin in his XX Letter which is directed to Hesychius saith that the Church appear'd not because of the excessive cruelty of the Persecutors Ecclesiam non apparituram impiis tunc Persecutoribus ultra modum saevientibus Several ancient and modern Authors have spoken to the same effect Vsher takes occasion from hence to make a parallel of the State of the Churches which followed the Council of Nice in the times that the Arians were the strongest with that wherein the West was found in these corrupt Ages The Arians reproached others with their small Number and their Poverty as it appears by these words of Gregory of Nazianza Where are those who upbraid us with our Poverty who say that the greatest Number forms the Church and who jeer the smalness of our Flock But as there lived in the Roman Empire several People who were not Arians Vsher conceives that under the Government of the Pope there was a pretty great number of Persons who were not of these opinions To shew that he doth not advance a simple conjecture he gives the History of the Original Opinions of the Vaudois who have rejected several of the Sentiments of the Church of Rome But he speaks more of them in the sequel as being a place wherein he should properly speak of them which obligeth us to pass to the vii Chapter and afterwards we will return to the Vaudois Vsher divides the time during which the Dragon hath been delivered from his Prison into three Periods the first reacheth to the time of Innocent III. The second unto Gregory XI And the third unto Leo X. The first comprehends two Ages taking it's beginning from the year 1000. The State the Western Church hath been in during the first of these two Ages and the complaints that the Authors of that time made against Corruptions which were equally seen in the Ecclesiasticks and People There have been no less complaints made of the Disorders of the twelfth Age as is plain in our Author who relates a great number thereof amongst which is this famous distich of Hildebert Bishop of Mans who saith in speaking of Rome Vrbs foelix si vel Dominis Vrbs illa careret Vel Dominis esset turpe carere fide Happy City if it had no Masters or if those who possess it believed it a shameful thing to want Faith The Popes took great care in that Age to have paid to them from England a kind of Tribute that they called St. Peters pence which Alexander II. in a Letter written to William the Norman saith had been paid by the English ever since they had embraced Christianity It appears by this Letter that the English sent this Money at first to Rome only thro' Liberality but this Liberality becoming a Necessity because the Kings commanded absolutely to do it the Authors of those times looked upon it as a Tribute Therefore Bertold of Constance who lived towards the latter end of the eleventh Age saith that it was then that the Prophecy of the Apocalypse was accomplished which saith That no Person could sell or buy without having the Mark or Name of the Beast or the Number of its Name The Reason of this is that according to the Relation of this Author in his Appendix of Hermannus Contractus towards the year Mlxxxiv William the first King of England rendred his whole Kingdom Tributary to the Pope and suffered none to sell or buy but such as submitted himself to the Apostolick See that is to say before he paid the Rome-scot or penny of St. Peter Notwithstanding this same William refused to swear an Oath of Fealty to Hildebrand and punished Bishops and other Ecclesiasticks who had offended him as he thought fit without having any regard to the Prayers and Exhortations of this Pope Some other Kings of England resisted the Popes likewise with the same vigour and we have proofs that the opinions of Rome were not yet spread every where Here is one that is pretty remarkable which is that Frederick Barbarousse being gone into the Holy Land to fight the Infidels in Mclxxxix Niaetas Choniates observes that the Germans were welcomed by the Armenians because the adoration of the Images of Saints was equally prohibited with the Armenians and Germans Hereby it appears that they had not as yet forgotten in Germany the Council of Francfort It is also remarked that several English Authors who have written after the arrival of the Normans said that the Church had in abhorrence the worship of Images The Doctrine even of Lanfranc concerning the Eucharist which the Normans brought into this Island was contrary to divers ancient Forms and Writings of the English And this is the cause that a long time after the Condemnation of
Berengarius there were in this Country several People of his Opinions against whom Matthew of Westminster published a Book in the year Mclxxx. Our Author gives the History of Berengarius in this Chapter but this matter having been treated at large in French Books by Arnauld and Claude the Reader will be there better satisfied We shall only take notice here that towards the middle of the twelfth Age they had an Idea of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist far different from that which the Roman Church hath at this day seeing Peter Lombard Bishop of Paris who is called Master of the Sentences speaks thereof thus l. iv dist 12. What is offered and consecrated by the Priest is called a Sacrifice and Oblation because it includes the Memory and Representation of the true Sacrifice and Immolation made upon the Altar of the Cross Jesus Christ adds he once died and hath been immolated upon the Cross in himself But he is immolated every day in the Sacrament because the Sacrament includes a Commemoration of what was once made Semel Christus mort●us est in Cruce ibique immolatus est in semetipso quot idie autem immolatur in Sacramento quia in Sacramento recordatio fit illius quod factum est semel The Beringarians have given exercise enough to some Popes successively one after another But the Vaudois who begun to be known in Mclx. gave them much more Reinier a Dominican and an Inquisitor who lived in the year Mccl. less than 100. years after the Vaudois speaks thereof in these terms Amongst all the Sects which are or have been there hath been none so pernicious to the Church as that of the Leonists and this for three Reasons The first is that it hath lasted longer for some say that it hath been from the time of Sylvester others from the time of the Apostles The second because it is more general for there is scarcely any Country where some of this Sect are not found The third is that whereas all other Sects gave a horrour to those who so much as heard of them by the excess of blasphemies which they vomited against God the Sect of the Leonists hath a great shew of Piety because they live well in the eyes of Men and that there belief towards God is good seeing they embrace all the Articles of the Creed They blaspheme only the Roman Church and Clergy against whom the multitude of Laicks suffer themselves easily to be overcome Hereby we may see that the Vaudois boasted then that there had been People since the Apostles time who had been of the same opinions with them so that they pretended not that theirs begun only in the twelfth Age. As to what concerns the purity of their manners several of those who have written against them give them a good Name as appears by the passages which Vsher cites thereof An Inquititor saith with Ingenuity enough speaking of them Cognoscuntur Haeretici per mores verba sunt enim in moribus compositi modesti superbiam in vestibus non habent c. Hereticks are known by their manners and Discourse their Manners are well-ordered and modest and there appeareth no Vanity in their Cloaths It is not easie to know their belief because those who have spoken thereof do contradict each other almost of them and that most have endeavoured to blacken them the most they could Monks are such Lyars and so well known for so long a time that one scarcely dares trust them how little soever their Interest is of telling a lye and such are the principal witnesses which may be produced upon this matter Wickliff said facetiously enough in his Trialogue that as it is a Topick Argument to say that a man is luxurious because he is too well dressed it 's also a Topick Argument to reason thus this opinion comes from a Monk therefore it is false for the lyes of Monks render this Topick Argument evident Sicut est Argumentum Topicum quod homo comptus exhinc est luxuriosus Sic est Argumentum Topicum ista opinio originatur à fratre ergo est falsa Nam eorum mendacia faciunt evidentiam ad hoc Argumentum Topicum If any would have a more express Testimony of a Monk let him read these Words of Thomas Walsingham a Benedictine This is a Monk therefore he is a Lyer is as good an Argument in form and matter as this Argument That is white therefore it is coloured In ore cujuslibet bonum fuerit Argumentum tenens tam de forma quàm de materia hic est frater ergo mendax Sicut illud hoc est album ergo coloratum Vsher sheweth that the contrary Testimonies of divers Authors that opinions have been attributed to them which they never had Their principal Heresie is that they rejected the excessive Authority of Popes and that they condemned the Tyranny Disorders and violent Superstitions of Monks They were called Vaudois not only by one Peter Waldo who according to some lived in MCLX and according to others much sooner but also the Poor of Lyons or Leonists Insabbathavies Cathares or Gazares Paterines Publicanes Agennese Petrobrusians Henericians Passagines Iosephines Arnaldists Humilists Albigese Goodmen c. These Names are drawn either from the opinions which were attributed to them or of some famous Doctors amongst them or of places where they lived as our Author hath at large shewn in Ch. viii It 's much to be desired that there was as much method as reading and that the additions which he made in the first Edition were either better ranged or better distinguished from the Rest For it must be granted that in this great confusion are many repetitions which all sorts of Readers are not equally fit to digest Peter Waldo according to some Historians was of Lyons and engaged himself after this manner to form a new Sect. One of his acquaintance dying suddenly he was so frightened thereat that he gave all his Goods to the Poor and so drew many of the People which he went about to instruct in expounding unto them the New Testament He was reprehended therein by the Ecclesiasticks of Lyons which made him withdraw into Gasconny and into the neighbouring Provinces where he always taught the People and censured the manners of the Ecclesiasticks praising voluntary Poverty and blaming the covetousness of Priests A great number of Laicks joined themselves to him in spight of the Excommunication which the Council of Tours held by Alexander the III. in Mclxiii and the Bishops of each place darted against them They assure us that in the beginning there were no learned men amongst them but that afterwards there were So that we cannot be certain that they at first had all the opinions which since appear amongst 'em because nothing hinders but that there might be some introduced by learned men who entred into this party If what Gaultier Mapes an Author of that time saith of the Vaudois be true they were also extreamly