would lye upon those who had tryed them by those Rules 4. If Revelations made to two several Persons do contradict each other that there is great Reason to suspect both For although saith Cardinal Bona it be possible that one may be true and the other false and the Devil may endeavour to take away the Authority of the True by the false yet for the most part they are both suspected and doubtful And before he saith that it is reasonable to believe those Women Saints were deceived in supposing their own Fancies to be divine Revelations who have published Revelations contradicting each other Which it is plain he intended for the famous case of the Revelations of S. Brigitt and S. Katharin which contradicted each other expresly about the immaculate conception and which I had produced as a plain instance of a false pretence to Inspiration in the Roman Church it being impossible God should contradict himself Mr. Cressy in answer to this first confesses that the publick Office of their Church testifies that each of them were favoured with Divine Revelations and then produces the Testimony of S. Antonin that those things may be supposed by the Persons themselves to be divine Revelations which are but humane dreams Thirdly He cites Cardinal Baronius who seems to reject the Revelations on both sides And yet he by no means will allow the honour of their Church to be concerned herein which hath approved them both as Persons truly Inspired when Mr. Cressy confesses they did not testifie their Revelations by Miracles and that without it Divine Revelation cannot be known I would not desire a greater advantage from an Adversary than Mr. Cressy here gives me against himself For by his own confession then their Church approves those to have had divine Revelations which never gave the proper evidence of it viz. Miracles and such whose Revelations are questioned by the Wisest men among them And what is all this but to give Countenance for all that the Church can know to a meer pretence to Inspiration which is the highest Fanaticism in the World And if as he saith notwithstanding the Councils approbation there is scarce a Catholick alive that thinks he hath an obligation to believe either of them this makes as much to my purpose as I desire for if they have no obligation to believe them they may without sin believe them not to be divine Revelations and since they are given out to be such and approved by their Church all such Persons may without sin charge them with the highest Fanaticism in a false pretence to Divine Revelation And why then should I be so much blamed for doing that which Persons in their own Church may do without sin But I see Mr. Cressy is not acquainted with the common Doctrine of their own Divines about the obligation that lyes upon Persons to believe Private Revelations For they agree 1. That those Persons to whom those Revelations are made are bound to believe them before any approbation of the Church For say they the primary Reason of assenting to a Divine Revelation is from the Divine Veracity to which it is wholly accidental whether it be publick or private and the Churches proposition is only the common external condition of applying the object of Faith to us but there may be as great an obligation to believe a private Revelation supposing only sufficient motives to the mind of the Person that this Revelation comes from God This is the opinion of Vega Catharinus Suarez Lugo Ysambertus and as they tell us of most of their modern Divines Indeed they mention Cajetan Sotus Canus and some others as of another opinion but Suarez saith they seem to differ only in words because they will not have that assent called Catholick Faith which the other are willing to yield to them and call it Theological Faith but do make it as certain and infallible as the other Which they prove not only from the obligation to faith in the private Revelations mentioned in Scripture but from invincible Reason because the ground of the assent of faith is not the publickness of the Revelation but the Divine Authority and Veracity which being supposed must equally oblige whether the Revelation be private or publick And if there be sufficient motives to believe a private Revelation to deny an obligation to believe it is a contempt of Divine Authority and to suppose there cannot be sufficient motives is to say that God cannot do as much by himself as he can by the Church The force of which Reason I do not see how it is possible for those to avoid who assert that God doth still communicate private Revelations to mens Minds 2. That supposing these Revelations to be proposed by the Church all others are bound to believe them to be divine Revelations For then they have the same reason which they have to believe any Revelation All the difficulty now is to understand what a sufficient proposal by the Church in this case is Suarez saith that although private Revelations be chiefly intended for the persons to whom they are made yet a sufficient proposal of them being made to others there doth arise from thence an obligation to believe them For which saith he The general Rule is the approbation of the Church as appears by the Lateran Council under Leo 10. which forbad the Preaching private Revelations without the examination and approbation of the Church and then saith Suarez the believing them becomes a part of Catholick Faith Now I desire to know how it is possible for their Church to shew greater care in the examination and approbation of any private Revevelations than it did in those of S. Brigitt they being frequently examined by the publick Authority of their Church and after such examination declared by the Pope to have come from the spirit of God and at last approved say their own writers at the General Council of Basil. How could they possibly express greater approbation of any controverted Book in the Bible But if after all this these Revelations may pass among them for Dreams and Fancies and no men are obliged to believe them let them clear their Church from Fanaticism if they can For either those Revelations were from God or not if not then they were Fanatical illusions approved by their Church if they were then since they were approved by those whom they are bound to believe with what face can Mr. Cressy say that there is scarce a Catholick alive that thinks he has an obligation to believe them which I do the more wonder at since they believe things as absurd already and with as little reason as any thing in S. Brigitts Revelations And therefore the Person of Honour had great Reason to say that Mr. Cressy hath in truth not answered the Weight of my Instance from the Revelations of S. Brigitt and S. Catharine 5. They confess that some persons are very
mentioned by O. N. which they have not been before-hand with him in producing to the very same purpose I cannot then find out the difference between the highest of our Enthusiasts and theirs and the very same pleas which serve for the one will justifie the other also What have they ever pretended to but to understand celestial secrets divine mysteries or future events by immediate Revelation Now all these things are owned defended and justified by the Roman Church and yet they not lyable to the charge of Fanaticism § 7. No saith O. N. Enthusiasm or Fanaticism doth not lye in speaking things hard to be understood nor yet the pretending high and mysterious effects Visions Revelations c. for all these we believe may be and are often wrought in Gods Saints by the Holy Spirit and his special presence in their souls and that we say in a much higher and more admirable way than any of Satans infatuations can imitate or ascend to but Fanaticism is a false pretence of these or the like when having no just ground to be credited they pretend to them So that the main point is yielded up to the Fanaticks viz. Visions and immediate Revelations and unaccountable Impulses from the Spirit of God all the dispute is whether the Popish Enthusiasts or those among us are only pretenders If O. N. were to convince a Quaker who pretends to such an immediate impulse of the Spirit this must be his method of proceeding with him Friend I perceive thou talkest much of the Spirit of God moving thee and revealing the hidden mysteries of his Kingdom to thee but thy pretence is vain and thou art deceived by thy own fancy if not by an evil Spirit No saith the Quaker I know I am not for I have the testimony of the Spirit within me that I am not deceived but thou art deceived and lyest against the Holy Ghost and blasphemest the Spirit of God working in his Saints Not I saith O. N. I grant that the Holy Ghost doth work in his Saints such supernatural elevations whereby they understand divine Mysteries and have Visions and Raptures and Revelations more than any of you but all ours are true and yours are false Thou lying Prophet replyes the Quaker Gods speaks truth by thee as he did once by Balaams Ass and Caiaphas but thou through the Wickedness of thy heart dost condemn the Generation of his Saints among us as hypocrites and wouldst have the Spirit of God dwell only among you that are the Sons of Mystical Babylon and partake of all her defilements that are the seed of the Beast and the false Prophet that commit adultery with Images and set up the Man of Sin in his Throne that have covered the face of the earth with your abominations and still go about to deceive the Nations You have the Spirit of God among you You pretend to the seeing hidden Mysteries and immediate Revelations and Mystical Unions with God! No yours are the Mysteries of Iniquity the Revelations of Antichrist and unions only with Mystical Babylon You have the Spirit of God among you No yours is the Spirit of Enchantment and Divination the Spirit of lying and deceit the Spirit of Antichrist and not of God I say again saith O. N. that we have the Spirit and you have not And I say by the Spirit that you have not saith the Quaker And is not this a fair conclusion of this Dispute Hath not O. N. extreamly got the better of the Quaker But O. N. pleads yet farther that they make use of Notes and Rules of discerning of the pretences to Inspiration which I shall consider afterwards but that which O. N. and Mr. Cressy do most insist upon is this that if such pretenders to Inspirations do speak or do any thing against the Catholick Church as they call it then their pretences are to be rejected as Satanical illusions Very good This is a way to preserve themselves but what is this to the preventing the delusions of such fanatick pretenders to Inspirations who may be grosly deceived and yet never speak or do any thing against their Church but it seems the least touch that way presently marrs all If Mother Teresa had but chanced to let fall a word against the Power of Holy Water in driving away Devils or chanced in one of her Visions to have seen Bread upon the Altar after consecration away with her a meer hypocrite and Impostor one deluded by the Devil and it had been well if after all her Visions and Raptures she had escaped the Inquisition For can it possibly be so certain that she had Divine Visions as that Holy Water drives away Devils or that she had Mystical Unions as that no bread remained upon the Altar after consecration No no. If melancholy Women once offer to meddle in those matters they must then be told of their weakness of Iudgement and strength of Imagination and delusions of the Devil but if they admire every superstitious foolery and see strange effects of Holy Water and in some Visions can discern the very flesh and blood of Christ in the Eâ—charist then O heavenly Visions O Divine Saint Then her Confessor must sooth and flatter her and suffer her to be deceived by her own imagination at least if not by something worse So that this whole business of Visions and Revelations among them is managed by Politick Rules if they can serve to strengthen their interest they are encouraged if not the persons are presently discountenanced and if they persist in their pretences in great hazard of the Inquisition But may not weak and Melancholy Persons be deceived in judging the effects of a strong Imagination to be the Inspirations of the Spirit of God What then say they these do no hâ—rt to the World But is it no injury to their souls to suffer them to be so deluded Is it no dishonour to Christian Religion to make the Perfection of the Devotion of it to consist in such strange unaccountable Unions and Raptures which take away the use of all Reason and Discourse Is it nothing to have Persons Canonized for Saints and admired and worshipped chiefly for the sake of these things In which case not only the particular persons while they lived were suffered to be abused but the whole Christian World as much as lyes in them is imposed upon and the effects of a strong Imagination and Mystical Unions are recommended as the perfection of the Christian State § 8. But whatever Rules they go by I shall now shew that such kind of Ecstasies and Revelations as the Mystical Divinity pretends to have been condemned by the Christian Church in former Ages which will yet farther discover how far it is from being a part of the Cristian doctrine â—o far is it from being the perfection of a Christian State And the Instance I shall produce will be such a one wherein the judgement of the whole Christian Church was seen viz. in
the ecstatical Visions and Raptures and Revelations which Montanus and his followers pretended to Baronius proves from the testimonies of Philastrius Epiphanius Theodoret and others that Montanus and his companions were good Catholicks and great practisers of fasting and mortifications and were in great esteem in the Church for a more than ordinary degree of sanctity when they wee in this reputation they pretended to have extraordinary Visions and Ecstasies wherein they suffered such violences as Mother Teresa describes and were under such a force upon their minds as they thought divine which deprived them of the present use of ratiocination in which state they said they had many Revelations from God Now here we have the very case of Mystical Unions and we all know that this Spirit of Montanus was rejected in the Christian Church as a Fanatick Enthusiastical Spirit but it will be worth our while to shew that it was upon this very ground because the Montanists pretended to such Ecstasies and Revelations from God which deprived men of the use of their Reason Claudius Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis apprehending the dangerous consequences of these Enthusiastical pretences to Ecstasies and Revelations goes to Ancyra in Galatia to give himself full satisfaction as to the nature of them and being returned he writes this account to his friend Marcellus that Montanus was wont to fall into sudden transports and ecstasies in which he became Enthusiastical and uttered strange things and prophesie which saith he is a thing contrary to the constant tradition and practice of the Christian Church the same he saith of the two female Enthusiasts Prisca and Maximilla and all the account he gives of their separation from the communion of the Church was because the Christian Church all over the world refused to give any entertainment to their Enthusiastical Spirit and that the Churches of Asia having met together and examined this Spirit they condemned it as impious whereupon they were cast out of the Church upon which Maximilla cryed out I am driven away as a Wolf from the Sheep but I am no Wolf but the Word and the Spirit and the Power Miltiades as appears by Eusebius writ a Book against the Montanists on this subject that God did not communicate Revelations in Ecstasies wherein he shewed that Montanus was wont to fall into his Ecstasies which ended in an involuntary Madness and then proves that none of the Prophets either of the Old or New Testament ever prophesied in Ecstasies or when they had no use of their Reason But no one speaks more punctually to this business than Epiphanius who layes down this as a general Rule that whatever Prophets spake they delivered with the clear use of their Reason and Understanding and afterwards saith that the Montanists were very much deceived in pretending to such Visions and Revelations because God had sealed up his Church and put an end to those extraordinary Gifts While there was any need of Prophets holy men of God were sent by him with a true Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great steadiness of mind and a clear understanding and afterwards makes this the characteristical difference of a true and false Prophet that a true Prophet speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great consistency of ratiocination and consequence Thus Moses thus Isaiah saith he thus all the Prophets Do not you see saith he that these are the words of men that understood themselves and not of men that were ecstatical but these pretenders to Visions and Revelations speak dark and perplexed and obscure things viz. much like to Mystical Divinity which neither they understood themselves nor those that hear them As any one may see in him by the fragments he hath preserved both of Montanus and Maximilla But they pleaded Scripture too for their Ecstasies and Raptures viz. Genâ— 2. 21. Gods sending upon Adam a deep sleep which was rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which Epiphanius answers that that was only a binding of his senses by natural rest and not any force upon the mind but they had another place too as impertinent as this but as impertinent as it is it is the very same phrase that my Adversaries produce Ego dixi in â—xcessu meo which Epiphanius proves cannot be understood of any such Ecstasie as the Montanists pleaded for and in Truth he needed not take much pains to do it But they could not follow the Montanists exactly unless they abused Scripture too to justifie their Visions and Ecstasies So one Ferdinandus de Diano a Venetian Divine writing a Book purposely in Vindication of these things on the occasion of the Ecstasies and Visions of a Certain Nun which were sent to Paul the fifth and which were taken by her Confessor for fourteen years together makes use of the very same phrases of Scripture as the Montanists did but exceeds them in impertinency for to prove Raptures he produces all the places where the word raptus is used raptus est nè malitia mutaret intellectum ejus Sap. 4. Mens illius ad diversa rapitur Job 26. rapiemur cum illis in nubibus 1 Thess. 4. but above all commend me to Holofernes his Rapture to prove the Raptures of the Popish Saints Holophernis oculi à sandalibus Iudith rapti sunt ejus cor sensus cum illis rapta sunt Jud. 16. Can any man be so hard hearted to withstand such manifest proofs as these are But to return to Epiphanius we are not to understand saith he any Rapture or Ecstasie of the Prophets so as to suppose them to be deprived of the use of their reason and them So he shews that S. Peter in his Ecstasie had still the free exercise of his Reason which he absolutely affirms of every Prophet both of the Old and New Testament What would Epiphanius have thought then of the glorious frenzies and heavenly follies of M. Teresa in which she spake she knew not what What of the Mystical Unions wherein the operations of the understanding are suspended What of all the holy Violences she underwent wherein both understanding and memory were distracted No doubt he would have declared them all to be downright Montanism and condemned by the whole Christian Church Neither were these the only Persons who delivered the sense of the Church in this matter but S. Hierom saith the same thing The Prophet saith he speaks not in an Ecstasie as Montanus and Prisca and Maximilla fondly imagine but what he prophesies is the Book of the Vision of one who understands all he sayes So of the Prophet Habakkuk he understands what he sees contrary to the perverse doctrine of Montanus and speaks not as a fool nor gives as distracted women do a sound without any signification Whence it comes that the Apostle commands that if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by the first should hold his peace for saith he presently after
this one stroke he endeavours to expell all the flock of phantasms from his conception of God Was not this O. N. very hard put to it to bring these passages to prove Mystical Divinity To as little purpose doth he produce that ejaculation Age Domine fac excita revoca nos accende ac rape c. for may not men pray for the exciting assisting and comforting Grace of God without supposing Ecstasies and Raptures and immediate Revelations But he was yet farther of when he brought that place to prove these extraordinary favours from God Lux es tu permanens quam de omnibus consulebam c. which if he had looked on the beginning of the Chapter he would have found to be an Address to Truth Ubi non mecum ambulasti veritas docens quid caveam quid appetam c. And doth O. N. think that there is such a Mystical Union between the Soul and Truth as to deprive men of the use of their Reason and Understanding but I am tired with these impertinencies yet we must have more of them For because S. Austin in describing the depth of his meditation concerning God and himself doth mention that by the eye of his mind he saw an immutable light very far above it and by this reflection he became as certain of what he only understood as if he had heard it in his heart therefore this place serves to prove no less than the fund of the soul and Gods internal speech to the soul and what not I expect next that De's Cartes his Method and Metaphysical Meditations should be brought to justifie Mystical Divinity â—or they altogether serve as well for it And cannot S. Austin express the profound meditation which he and his Mother Monica had concerning the blessed state of souls in Heaven and the ardent desire they had of being there and the Ioy they found in the thoughts of it without falling into the unintelligible Canting of the Mystical Divines God forbid that I should ever call the Discourses or Desires or joyful thoughts of the happiness of Heaven by the name of Canting that were indeed to be impious and prophane but what is all this to a perfect and immediate union with God in the pure fund of the Spirit in this present state a Union which supposes a cessation of Reason and Discourse No such thing was in the least thought of by S. Austin who was too great a Philosopher to suppose Contemplation in this life without any act of Reasoning or Discourse In his Book de quantitate animae he describes the several steps of the soul and the highest of all he places in the contemplation of God as the Supream Truth and declares that he could not express the Ioyes which did attend the fruition of the true and chief Good But great and â—â—â—nparable minds have expressed these â—â—ings as far as they thought them fit to be expressed which we believe to have seen and still to see those things By which it is plain he speaks of the Ioys â—f another World and not of any Mystical and passive Unions in this and afterwards he speaks of the imperfection of this contemplation here and that therefore death will be desirable because those things will then be taken away which now hinder the whole Soul from fixing upon whole Truth In his Book de Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae he speaks of the Egyptian Hermites spending their life in contemplation without mentioning any Raptures and Ecstasies they had and although he doth plead for their life supposing the usefulness of their prayers to others yet he doth not dissemble that their manner of living was displeasing to some and afterwards saith himself that the Vertue of those who conversed with mankind deserved greater admiration and praise such as the Bishops Priests and Deacons of the Christian Church But although S. Austin doth not yet O. N. saith that Cassian doth mention the frequent raptures and ecstasies of these Egyptian Hermits but of all sorts of persons those who lead an Eremitical life are least fit to be produced because all those who have written on this subject in the Roman Church do say that the illusions of the Devil may be so like divine Raptures that there is a necessity of a great deal of Judgement and Skill to be able to put a difference between them and that none ought to be allowed but such as have been approved by discreet Persons but in the case of these Hermites we may have just reason upon their own Rules to suspect them having been never brought under a sufficient Rule of tryal If Persons may be deceived themselves in judging natural distempers and Satanical illusions for divine raptures and visions then we have no reason to rely on the single Testimonies of such Eremitical Persons who have no witnesses of their actions What know we what sort of Persons Abbot Iohn and Abbot Isaac were in the Deserts of Aegypt we have only their single Testimonies in Cassian and his single word that they said such things to him § 9. But to take off the force of these and such like Instances I shall consider the Rules laid down by their own Writers concerning these things and from thence shew what grounds we have not to rely on the Instances produced by them concerning Visions and Raptures and Ecstasies and Revelations 1. They consess that the natural force and power of Imagination will in some tempers produce all the same symptoms and appearances both to themselves and others which there are in supernatural elevations So Cardinal Bona who very lately and with the best Judgement hath collected the Rules of their Writers upon this subject freely acknowledgeth not only that Ecstasies may be caused by natural diseases of which Galen gives an instance in a Schoolfellow of his and Fernelius and Sennertus many others but by the meer force of Imagination by which the animal spirits flowing in greater quantities to the brain do thereby hinder the external operations of the senses so that the person under it continues without sense or motion and in that condition fancies an extraordinary presence of that object which the imagination was fixed upon And the more intense this imagination is the greater flux of Spirits is made to the brain and so the Ecstasie continues so much the longer especially where the Spirits are more thick and melancholy and consequently not so easily dissipated So Paulus Zacchias saith that we are not to conclude an ecstasie to be supernatural because it ariseth from the contemplation of supernatural things for the Imagination being fixed upon divine things will have the same effects that it would have upon other things Thence saith he such persons do really think as much as men do in dreams that they are present at that time with Angels or Saints and have conferences with them or that they see and enjoy God or imagine themselves to be
Monks with a Superiour over them which Gregory mentions long before he takes notice of any Rule made by him and Angâ—lus de Nâ—ce the present or late Abbâ—t of Cassino consesies that he did not make his Rule till a little before his death and that at the beginning he had not the least thought of making any Rules for the Order of Monks but being grown old by lâ—ng experience and observation and comparing of former Rules he drew up those which go under his name which received no Authority from him that made them but depended upon the free consent of those who submitted themselves unto them and therefore he compares them to the Laâ—s of Solon or the Decemviri than which nothing can be said more dâ—structive to the pictence of divine inspiration for supposing these Rules were dictated by the Holy Ghost their obligatory power would not depend upon the consent of persons but the Divine Authority of him that delivered them Holsienius thinks that S. Benedict made his Rule only for his own Monastery at Cassâ—â—o never intending it for any universal Rule but whether he did or no it was very little known for some time after his death for in an antient Copy of it in the Vatican Library there is a short preface before it wherein we find that it is called latens â—pus a work that lay hid and that it was first brought to light by Simplicius which is said likewise by Sigebert Simplicius discipulus ejus latens Magistri opus publicavit If this Rule came by divine inspiration as the Pope and Mr. Crâ—ssy say what they believe I know not how came it to be concealed by Benâ—dict himself was that a thing befitting an inspiâ—ed person to wrap up such a divine Talent in a napkin and to hide it under ground Angelus de Nuce a man much concerned to find out the truth in these things saith that S. Benedict delivered his Rulâ— but a few Months before his death to S. Maurus then going into France and that before this there is not a word said of it and that there were no copies then extant at all of it that being the Original given to S. Maurus written with his own hand This Simplicius accompanied Maurus into France and there stayed till his death and two years after which was in all forty three years and then he together with Faustus returned to their Brethren in Italy â—nd then he made known the Benedictin Rule which had been hitherto concealed So that in the space of forty three years after Benedicts death there was nothing like an acknowledgement made even in the parts of Italy of any such Rule at all as the Bâ—nedictin much less that it came by divine inspiration § 10. But to shew the universal reception of this Rule Mr. Cressy produces the confirmation of it extant in the Monastery of Sublac by Gregory wherein he mentions not only his reading but confirming it in a holy Synod and commands the observation of it through several parts of Italy and wheresoever the Latin Tongue is spoken and that whosoever shall come to the Grace of coâ—version should most diligently observe it even to the end of the World This I confess is to the purpose and so much that I think all that are not of the Benedictin Order in the Roman Church are concerned to answer it But we need not take much pains to discover the fraud of this for Gallonius in his Vindication of Baronius against the Bendictins hath given several proofs of the forgery of it not only by the falseness of the date by comparing it with Gregories Epistles but because therein Iohannes Albanensis Episcopus subscribes whereas in the true Copies of the Roman Synod at that time it is Homobonus Albanensis and because the custom of publishing decrees by the Bishop who was the Bibliothecarius was much later than that time for Gregory made Use only of his Notary for for that purpose And this is so much more probable to be a meer forgery of the Monks since that hath been alwayes their particular knack in what concerns the honour of their Order as the same Aâ—thor hath shewed in many examples relating to our present purpose For he hath fully proved several of the pretended priviledges of the Benâ—dictins to be gross forgeries as likewise the ample Donations of Gordianus and Tertullus and the confirmation of the Letter by Iustinian the Bull of Pope Zacharie and his Epistle to Petronax the Epistle of Gregory to Bonitus and that they had rased several words out of a Bull of Bâ—niface the fourth on purpose that Gregory the Great might appear to have been of the Benedictin Order as he makes it evident by comparing several Copies of the said Bull. Have we not then great reason to trust these men in what concerns the honour of their Order who make no conscience of forging donations or priviledges or decrees that make for them or of rasing out what makes against them and this conâ—eâ—ed by men of their own Church and the â—acts so notorious that Gallonius saith Cardinal Baronius was ashamed of themâ— they were such gross impostures and he adâ—s himself that had it not been for their vehement provocations he would not have eâ—posed such things to the World The like impostures to these have been discovered by others of the Roman Church who were men of more integrity than either to deâ—end or desâ—emble the shameless forgeries of the Monks as any one may easily satisfie himself by the very many Discourses published by Ioh. Launoy to that purpose But I need not go from my present business the same Gallâ—nius hath proved the Epistle of the Abbâ—t of S. Hâ—noratus to Simplicius Aâ—bot of Cassinum to be of the same stamp whereâ—n it is said that all the Monasteries of Iâ—â—ly had then embraced the Benedictin Rule of which whosoever was the Author Gallâ—nius saith he deserved to be punished as one Ciâ—â—arellus at Rome was who was hanged and his body burned for forging old Writings it is pitty that all who have been equally guilty there have not suffered in the same kind We do not find then any evidence great enough to shew that the Benedictin Rule was either delivered at first as from divine Inspiration or believed to be so in those parts of Italy where it was first known or that those of the Monastick Order did think themselves obliged to embrace it S. Benedict a little before his death sent Maurus and his companions into France to propagate his Rule there and because Mr. Cressy quotes a Synod about A. D. 874. acknowledging S. Benedict to be inspired by the Holy Ghost I â—hall briefly give an account of the entertainment the Benedictin Rule met with in those parts Before the coming of Maurus into France there were several Monastick Rules â—ell known there the Rule of S. Basil and the Egyptian Rules are mentioned by their eldest Historians