Baptism We may observe likewise that as he recommends to Believers the consideration of these Words sursum Corda at the Moment of their receiving these Mysteries so he doth not own that any receive the Body of Christ besides those that fear him and who by Faith are made the Sanctuary of God thus he argues in his Commentaries upon Psal 21 132. As for Faustus Bishop of Riez whatever Contests he had with those who defended the Doctrine of St. Augustin in the matter of Grace which made Pope Gelasius condemn his Writings yet certain it is that France has always had the highest esteem for him possible and his Name is registred in the Catalogue of her Saints in the Roman Martyrology till it was expunged by Molanes in the last Century Neither hath this hindred but that to this Day he is honoured and prayed unto as a Saint in the Diocess of Riez His Doctrine is as follows 1. He rejects the Merits of good Works and Works of Supererrogation as particularly as if he had had an Eye to the Papists Wherefore saith he though we endeavour with all Labours of Soul and Body though we exercise our selves with all the might of our Obedience yet nothing of all this is of sufficient Worth to be rendred or offer'd up by us as a deserving Recompence for Heavenly-good Things No temporal Obedience whatsoever can be equivalent to the Joys of Eternal Life Though our Limbs may be wearied with Watchings and our Faces discolour'd with Fastings yet when all is done the Sufferings of this time will never be worthy to be compared with that Glory which shall be revealed in us He discourseth much at the same rate concerning Grace and Free-will 2. We see clearly that he did not own the Existence of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist in the manner of a Spirit because he maintains all Creatures to be corporeal and that the Soul is distinctly in a certain place because if it were otherwise we must conclude it to be every where That which is very strange is that Mamertus who hath refuted him doth yet more directly thwart this Doctrine of Rome by the various Hypotheses which he proposeth when he confutes this Faustus Bishop of Riez But this Century hath detain'd me too long I proceed now therefore to consider the State of these Diocesses in the Sixth Century CHAP. VI. The State of these Diocesses in the Sixth Century WE do not find so many Authors of these Diocesses in the Sixth Century as we have had in the foregoing but however those we have of them are sufficient to inform us what their State was I begin with St. Caesarius Bishop of Arles who assisted at the Council of Agde in the year 502 and died in 542 so that he reach'd almost the middle of this Century This great Man fully represents the Notion that he had of the Eucharist when he shews that in Baptism there is the same Change and the same Presence of the Blood of Jesus Christ which he owns in the Eucharist as appears in his 4 th and 5 th Homily But in his 7 th Homily he speaks in such a manner as needs no Commentary And therefore since he was now about to withdraw his assumed Body from our Eyes and carry it up to Heaven it was needful that the same day he should consecrate for us the Sacrament of his Body and Blood that he might continually be remembred by the Mystery which was once offer'd up for our Redemption that so seeing his Intercession for the Salvation of Man was daily and continual the offering up of our Redemption might be perpetual also that this everlasting Sacrifice might live in our Memory and be always present by Grace 2. Though he speaks of the Eucharist as changed into the Body of Jesus Christ by the Power of God yet he maintains that it is by Faith and by the Acts of Understanding that we can partake thereof See how he speaks to a Christian who hath been regenerated by Baptism Wherefore as without any bodily feeling having laid aside what before thou esteemedst advantageous thou art suddenly become clothed with a new Dignity and as it is not thy Eyes but thy Understanding that persuades thee that God hath healed what was wounded in thee blotted out thy Sins and wash'd away thy Stains so when thou goest up to the venerable Altar to be satisfied with Food thou may'st see the sacred Body and Blood of thy God by Faith admire it with Reverence reach it with thy Mind receive it with thy Heart and above all take it in with thy Soul 3. He expresly asserts that the Body which the Priest distributes is as well in a little Part as in the Whole which agrees only with the Sacrament and not with the natural Body of Jesus Christ 4. He maintains that the Oblation of the Bread and Wine made by Melchizedeck did typically signify the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ which is absolutely false if it be true that the Consecration destroys the Nature of the things offered as the Church of Rome believes Hear what he saith He therefore in Melchizedeck whose Genealogy or Original was unknown to those of that time by the offering of Bread and Wine did foreshew this Sacrifice of Christ of whom the Prophet pronounceth Thou art a Priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedeck And Blessed Moses also speaking of this Mystery signifies the Wine and Blood with one Word Long before pointing at the Lord's Passion in the Blessing of the Patriarch he shall wash his Garment in Wine and his Clothes in the Blood of the Grape Mark how evidently it appears that the Creature Wine is called the Blood of Christ Consider what thou art further to enquire concerning this twofold Species seeing the Lord himself witnesseth Except saith he you shall eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you which Testimony is a most evident and strong Argument against the Blasphemies of Pelagius who impiously presumes to maintain that Baptism ought to be conferred upon Infants not to obtain Life but to attain the Kingdom of Heaven For by these Words of our Lord pronounced by the Evangelist You shall not have Life in you is plainly understood that every Soul that hath not been baptized is not only deprived of Glory but Life also Lastly In the same Sermon he saith in Conformity with the Notion of St. Cyprian about the Mixture of the Water with the Wine in the Chalice that by the Water is represented the Figure of the Nations and by the Wine the Blood of the Passion of our Saviour which supposeth the Subsistence of the Wine as well as of the Water and utterly overthrows the Doctrine of Transubstantiation 2. He overturns the Notion of the Romish Purgatory and follows here also the Sentiments of those of the Ancients who removed Purgatory to the last Day of Judgment
1 Cor. 11.24 and shews that the Authors of this Liturgy did understand them of the Cross and not as the Church of Rome doth of the Eucharist The Ambrosian and Gallican Liturgies have followed the Sense of the Gothick Liturgy which deserves some Observation We meet with the same thing again Thou didst command by Moses and Aaron thy Servants that the Passover should be celebrated by the offering of a Lamb for ever until the Coming of Christ and hast commanded the same Custom to be observed for a Memorial 4. It supposeth that we receive the Body of Jesus Christ spiritually Let us dearest Brethren who have been fed with the Food of Heaven and refreshed with the Cup of the Eternal Wine render never-ceasing Praises and Thanks to our God begging of him that we who have spiritually receiv'd the Sacred Body of our Lord Jesus Christ being freed from fleshly Vices may deserve to be made Spiritual What it means by the word Spiritual is very plain where it calls the Dove that appeared at the Baptism of Jesus Christ Spiritalis Columba And the spiritual Dove descending upon his Head by the Holy Ghost that camest thy self Thus it calls the Eucharist spiritual Sacrifices He hath refreshed us with the Heavenly Bread and the Spiritual Cup. 5. It takes for granted that the Believers of old did eat the same Living Bread which Jesus Christ gives us For he himself is the living and true Bread that came down from Heaven and always dwells in Heaven who is the Substance of Eternity and the Food of Power For thy Word by which all things were made is not only the Bread of humane Souls but of the very Angels themselves By the Nourishment of this Bread thy Servant Moses was enabled to fast 40 Days and Nights when he received the Law and abstained from carnal Food that he might be the more capable of tasting thy Sweetness living on thy Word Let this living and true Bread which came down from Heaven that he might give Food to the Hungry yea that he himself might be the Food of the Living become to us such Bread as that our Hearts may be strengthned thereby that so in the Power of this Bread we may be enabled to fast these 40 Days without any impediment from Flesh and Blood 6. It calls the Sacrament Gifts laid upon the Altar Be pleased to sanctify O Lord these Gifts which we offer upon thy Altar offering immaculate Sacrifices upon the Holy Altar Let us beseech the Almighty through his only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ who hath vouchsafed to bless and sanctify these Gifts by the offering up of his Body and Blood that he would be pleased also to bless the Gifts offered by his Servants 7. It calls the Sacrament Salutiferam Dominicae immolationis effigiem in sacrificio spiritali Christo offerente transfusam The salutiferous Representation of our Lord 's offering up of himself transfused into the spiritual Sacrifice whereof Christ himself is the Sacrificer or Offerer 8. We find there a Prayer whose Title is A Collect for the Breaking of the Bread after Consecration Which scarce proves that they were persuaded that the Substance of the Bread was destroyed by the Consecration 9. The same which in some Places it calls the Body of Christ it elsewhere calls the Sacrament of the Body 10. It reduceth all to the virtue of the Eucharist Keep within us Lord the Gift of thy Glory and let us by the Virtue of the Eucharist which we receive be armed against all the Pollutions of the World 11. It supposeth that the Body of Jesus Christ abides within us and prays that it may continue there incorruptible Hear the Prayers of thy Family Almighty God and grant that these holy Things which we have received of thy Gift we may by thy Gift keep incorrupted within us And again let us with unanimous Prayer entreat the Divine Mercy that these saving Sacraments being received into our inward Parts may purify our Soul and sanctify our Body and confirm our Hearts and Minds in the hope of heavenly Things 12. It calls the Eucharist Holy Bread Bearing in mind the most glorious Passion of our Lord and his Resurrection from the lower Parts of the Earth We offer up unto thee O Lord this unspotted Sacrifice this holy Bread and this saving Cup beseeching thee c. 13. It calls the Sacrament Holy Mysteries in several Places These many Instances one would have thought might have obliged Mabillon to believe that the Authors of this Liturgy did speak figuratively in some other Places where they seem to speak more strongly and to give us another Notion especially considering the manner of their expressing themselves when they speak of the Feast of St. John Baptist It it worthy and just equal and saving for us always to give Thanks to thee Almighty and merciful God and in this Banquet of thy Sacrament to join the Head of thy Martyr by an Evangelical Commemoration and to offer it upon thy Propitiatory Table as in a Dish of shining Metal And we may add several others upon each of those Passages which seem the most likely to deceive us If we had the Canon of this Liturgy which these Gentlemen did not think fit to give us we should there easily find the Solution of these Difficulties for it is very probable it was like that of the Ambrosian Liturgy where it was so clearly specified that the Bread was the Figure of the Body of Jesus Christ as that it put an end to all manner of Cavillings on the Point Indeed these Words The Figure or Representation of the Sacrifice of our Lord do plainly shew that this was their meaning But we must make a shift to help our selves with what they have been pleased to give us It is easy to judg what those Passages were which Mabillon judg'd to be most favourable to his Cause for he hath caus'd them to be Printed in great Characters that no Body might pass them by Thus the word Truth seem'd to him to determine the Question of the Real Presence the Words are these We beseech thee Almighty God that like as we do now perform the Truth of the Heavenly Sacrament so we may cleave to the Truth of the Body and Blood of our Lord. But this learned Benedictine has suffer'd himself to be overtaken by his own Prejudice The Author of the Liturgy distinguisheth two times the one before the Death of Jesus Christ which was only an obscure Image of a Thing that was to come this is that which is exprest in these Words Or that the Living Bread by denying of himself should not afford Life but for the Redemption of his Possession and the Praise of his Glory what before he vouchsaf'd in a Parable he may now vouchsafe in Truth The other wherein the Death of Jesus Christ hath authoriz'd the Signification of the Eucharist upon which
account he calls it the Truth of the Heavenly Sacrament We have a like Expression of Baptism alluding to the Passage of the Red-Sea in one of St. Augustin's Homilies upon Nicodemus's coming to Jesus Christ related by Paulus Diaconus In inventione S. Crucis and 't is the same we find also in several Passages of St. Caesarius We find that the word Transformation has perfectly charm'd him We therefore Lord keeping these Institutes and Precepts do most humbly beseech thee that thou wouldst be pleased to receive bless and sanctify this Sacrifice that it may be to us a true Eucharist in thy own and Son's Name and of the Holy Ghost that so there may be a Transformation of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ thy only Begotten c. And in a Marginal Note he observes that the same Word is made use of in this Liturgy That it may please thee to send down thy Holy Spirit upon these Solemnities that it may be to us a true Eucharist in thy own and Son's Name and of the Holy Ghost for a Transformation of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ thy only Begotten that it may bestow upon us who eat it eternal Life and the everlasting Kingdom to those that shall drink it And also That thy Blessing may come down upon this Bread and Wine for the Transformation of thy Holy Spirit that blessing thou may'st bless them and sanctifying thou may'st sanctify them c. And the like in other Missals as antient as this which he observes also in his Preface But this after all signifies nothing else but the Change which the Holy Ghost produceth in making the Elements after Consecration to become the Sacrament of the Body of Jesus Christ This is that which our Authors have fully justified by an infinite number of Examples borrowed from Baptism and other things consecrated by Prayer Boethius in his Books De consolatione Philosophiae saith Conversi in malitiam humanam quoque amisêre naturam Evenit ergo ut quem transformatum vitiis videas hominem existimare non possis Being turn'd into Malice they at the same time lose humane Nature So that if you see one transformed by Vice you cannot look upon him as a Man And Ratramnus in his Book of the Body and Blood of our Lord saith That Jesus Christ in former times could change the Manna and Water out of the Rock in the Wilderness into his Flesh and Blood the same Ratramnus that oppos'd Paschasius who was the first Publisher of the Doctrine of a real Change We find there the Notion of Vertere and convertere in carnem Beseeching that he who then changed the Water into Wine would be pleased now to change the Wine of our Oblations into his Blood And again Let us entreat him that he who as at this day by his Son turned the Species of Water into Wine would be pleased in like manner to change the Oblations and Prayers of us all into a Divine Sacrifice and to accept them as he did accept the Offering of Abel the Just and the Sacrifice of Abraham his Patriarch But the appearance of this seeming Difficulty we find in the following Leaf Besides that it is ridiculous to suppose the real Change of the Prayers of Believers into the Body and Blood of our Saviviour which is suppos'd of the Oblations We meet with an Expression which seems somewhat strange O Jesu Christ who in the Evening of the World wast made an Evening-Sacrifice on the Cross vouchsafe to us that we may become new Sepulchres for thy Body Tho indeed these Expressions plainly shew that they are only intended for the prefiguring the Death of Christ according to the Notion of Rabanus Maurus We find there frequently that the Sacrament is said to be a Remedy for the Body and an Expiation for the Soul but this doth no more suppose the carnal Presence or the Expiation which is the fruit of a Propitiatory Sacrifice than that which we find in the Roman Order in blessing a Grave that it may be a saving Remedy to the Party resting in it for the Redemption of his Soul In the same Liturgy they say to God Do thou therefore so come down into the present Oblation that it may afford Healing unto the Living and Refreshment unto those who are Dead But this regards only the Presence of Vertue as in the Roman Order they beg of God that he would afford his Presence and Majesty in Baptism There is mention likewise made of the Immolation of the Body of Jesus Christ but this is only said by way of Resemblance as St. Augustin explains it in his 23 d Epistle to Bonifacius for in other places this Liturgy speaks of Bread offered up There is also mention made of a Sacrifice But 1 st He gives that Name to the Eucharist which every-where throughout this Liturgy is termed a Sacrifice of Praises and Thanksgivings 2 ly It compares the Sacrifice with that of Melchizedeck wherein every one knows there was nothing of Transubstantiation This is that which Rabanus explains Lib. 1. de instit clericor cap. 31. Mabillon particularly triumphs when he takes notice of a Passage which is found in the 78 th Office He offer'd up himself first to thee a Sacrifice and first taught himself to be offer'd These words offer'd up himself seem to him to be applicable to the Act of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist but he must not take it ill if we tell him that it is not true that he then offer'd up any Sacrifice the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ consisting only in his Death on the Cross the Eucharist where he had only his Death before his Eyes was only the Memorial of his Sacrifice his Offering consisting only in his Death If he did offer up himself in the Eucharist then was he already dead which is a Notion attributed to Gregory Nissen but is refuted by the Divines of the Church of Rome as impertinent Some it may be will imagine that the Authors of the Gothick Liturgy take away all Equivocation when they say Let us receive that in the Wine which flow'd from thee on the Cross But indeed here we have reason to admire how far strong Prejudices will carry Men so as even to hinder common Sense from acting for really there can be no Notion more opposite to Transubstantiation since this Notion represents the State in which Christ was given to us that is a State of Death which is contrary to the Popish Notions by which they believe him alive in the Eucharist Besides it is absolutely false that Jesus Christ did after his Resurrection retake the same Blood which he lost on the Cross The Church of Rome pretends that she hath it in her keeping and it is shown in I don't know how many places This Expression is well known to be St. Augustin's whose Doctrine is vastly opposite to that of Transubstantiation as De
dead with the triumph of Merits but they are not to be ador'd with Divine Worship for that very reason because it is Divine Worship Seeing therefore saith he that God alone is to be worshipp'd the Martyrs and all other Saints are rather to be venerated than worshipped as we have said before in this Book And the same thing we meet with also cap. 28. towards the end 6. It appears clearly from what he saith concerning the means whereby we obtain Remission of Sins that he own'd no other Sacraments of the Church besides Baptism and the Eucharist for indeed he mentions only these two 7. He was so far from owning either the Infallibility of the Pope or of a Council which the Pope hath approved that he maintains it was a piece of Folly to look upon the 2 d Council of Nice as universal and calls it a Council of one Part of the Church only and he afterwards censures the Fathers of that Council for giving it the Title of Universal whereas it had been conven'd without the Participation and Consent of many Catholick Churches This Remark made such an Impression upon the Learned Jesuit Sirmondus that he seems not to own the second Council of Nice as a general Council 8. The Fathers of the second Nicene Council having made a Comparison between the Eucharist and Images and used these following Expressions which are not to be found at present in the Copies of that Council As the Body of our Saviour passeth from the Fruits of the Earth into an excellent Mystery so Images formed by the Industry of Artificers pass to the Veneration of those Persons according to whose Likeness they have been wrought Charlemain doth censure those who had made a Parallel between Images and the Eucharist in such a manner as shews that he knew nothing of Romish Transubstantiation He saith That the Eucharist is made by the Hand of the Priest and by calling upon the Name of God both Priest and People joining their Prayers in the Consecration thereof whereas Images stand in no need of Consecration but are made at the Discretion of the Painter He saith that Melchizedeck did not present an Image as a Type of the Body and Blood but Bread and Wine that Moses commanded a Lamb to be eaten as a Type of our Saviour wholly rejecting the Custom of worshipping Images That the Psalmist who sang that Men should eat the Bread of Angels that is Jesus Christ hath also declared that the Makers of Images are like unto the Images they have made That the Sacrament is of Divine Institution whereas the insolent Use of Images is not only without Scripture but also directly contrary to the Writings of the Old and New Testament That our Saviour never instituted the Memory of his Suffering to be kept up by the Works of Artificers and worldly Arts but by the Consecration of his Body and Blood that he was not willing that his Faith and his Confession should be express'd by Pictures but by the Mouth and the Heart We are carefully to take notice that the Authors of this Book who desired to exalt the Sacrament of the Eucharist with all their Might never give the least hint that Jesus Christ had instituted it to make it an Object of Adoration They say that the Eucharist according to the Judgment of St. Paul is preferable almost to every other Sacrament that it is made invisibly by the Spirit of God and consecrated by the Priest who calls upon God that it is carried by the Hands of Angels and laid upon the Altar of God in Heaven that it can neither increase nor be diminished that it is confirmed by the Old and New Testament that it is the Life and Nourishment of Souls that by its Manducation it leads to the Entrance of the Heavenly Kingdom that it can never be abolished no not in the time of Persecution and that no body can be saved without receiving of it Whereas Images are visibly made by the Hand of the Workman painted by the Art of the Painter placed on the Walls by the Hands of Men that by them if Men inconsiderately abuse them Sins are increased that they can increase and diminish in Beauty according to the Ability of the Workman that Age spoils them that they only feed the Eye that they only bring to remembrance things past by looking upon them that they may be spoiled by taking wet that they who keep to the true Faith are saved without having any Regard to Images And to exaggerate the Folly of their Anathema's pronounced against those that did not worship them they conclude that this Anathema strikes at the Saints of old of whom we never read that they adored them that the same was levell'd at the Martyrs who from the Baptismal Font passed immediately to the Kingdom of Heaven without any Adoration of Images and lastly that it is darted against little Infants who cannot worship them and of whom notwithstanding the Son of God saith Suffer little Children to come to me c. I own that Charlemain censureth Gregory Bishop of Neocaesaria for giving to the Eucharist the Name of the true Image of Jesus Christ For after having made out that no Artificer can form a true Image of Jesus Christ he adds when he speaks of the Eucharist That Jesus Christ did not offer up to God the Father for us in Sacrifice any Image or Prototype but himself and that he who of old had been foretold by visible Resemblances under the Shadow of the Law in the Immolation of the Lamb and in some other things as being the Sacrifice that was to be offered by truly accomplishing the things that had been prophesied of him in the Oracles of the Prophets did offer up himself to God the Father for a saving Sacrifice and bestowed upon us the Shadows of the Law being past away not some imaginary Sign but the Sacrament of his Body and of his Blood For the Mystery of the Blood and Body of our Lord must not now be called an Image but the Truth not the Shadow but the Body not a Type of things to come but that whith had been prefigured by the Types of old For now according to the Song of Songs the Day is risen and the Shadows are gone now Jesus Christ the End of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believes is come he hath now fully accomplished the Law Now upon those who sat in the Region of the Shadow of Death a great Light is risen Now the Vail is taken off from the Face of Moses and the Vail of the Temple being rent hath opened to us all Secrets and Things hid Now the true Melchizedeck Christ the King of Righteousness and King of Peace hath bestowed upon us not Sacrifices of Beasts but the Sacrament of his Body and of his Blood and hath not said This is the Image of my Body and of my Blood but This is my Body which shall
concerning the Eucharist that the Papists have never been able to return any pertinent Answer to it save only this that the Passage we quote is supposititious The Person we speak of is Christianus Druthmarus Monk of Corbie whom it seems God was willing to oppose to the corrupt Notions of Paschasius Radbertus his Abbot The Passage is this And as they were at supper Jesus took Bread and blessed it and brake it After that he had fulfilled the Command concerning the old Passover and put an end to the old Shadows he makes a beginning of new Grace and of a new Sacrifice He took Bread which strengthens the Heart of Man and which doth most of all support Mens Bodies and in it placeth the Sacrament of his Love but much more doth that spiritual Bread fully strengthen and comfort all sorts of Creatures because in him we move and have our Being First he blessed it because in himself who was Man he blessed all Mankind for having taken humane Nature upon him from the Blessed Virgin he thereby demonstrated that the Blessing and Power of the Divine Immortality was really therein He brake the Bread himself because he voluntarily offer'd up himself to suffer and that he might fill and satisfy us he made no difficulty to break the Mansion of his Soul as himself said I have Power to lay down my Life and have Power to take it up again And gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body He gave to his Disciples the Sacrament of his Body for the Remission of Sins and Preservation of Charity that they remembring this Act of his might always perform that in a Figure which he was now about to do for them and might not forget that This is my Body that is in the Sacrament And he took the Cup and gave Thanks and gave it to them saying Forasmuch as amongst all sorts of Food Bread and Wine are found to be the most effectual to strengthen and refresh our weak Bodies he with good reason thought fit by these two to ratify and confirm the Ministry of his Sacrament for Wine not only exhilarates but also encreases Blood and therefore is the Blood of Christ very properly typified thereby because whatsoever comes to us from him doth enliven us with a true Joy and encreaseth all our good And lastly As when a Person that is to take a far Journey leaves to his Friends that love him some Pledg or Token of his Love upon this Condition that they use it every day that they may not forget him So likewise hath God commanded us having spiritually changed his Body into Bread and the Wine into Blood by these two to remember what he hath done for us with his Body and Blood and not to be unthankful to his most endearing Love and Charity And because Water is mingled with the Sacrament of his Blood it represents his People for whom he was pleased to die And neither is the Wine without Water nor the Water without Wine because as he died for us so must we die for him or for our Brethren that is for the Church Wherefore also Water and Blood came forth from his Body And whereas he saith This is my Blood of the New Testament this is added in contradistinction to that of the Old Testament which by the Blood of Goats could not purge away Sin from those who were still in bondage to Sin But I say unto you I will not drink henceforth of this Fruit of the Vine until that day when I shall drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom The Vine is Judaea the Wine that of the Patriarchs Prophets and other Elect. For till that time Judaea had brought forth Clusters of Grapes from whence Wine flowed forth that is Works done in Faith but from the Death of our Lord wild Grapes only until the time that Enoch and Elias shall carry them up into the Kingdom that is the Church of Christ at the end of the World Or else more simply the Words may be thus taken That from the hour of his supping with his Disciples he would drink no more Wine until he was become immortal and incorruptible after his Resurrection Whereas also he was pleased not to administer the Sacrament of his Body and Blood to his Disciples till after they had supp'd and that we are not commanded to take it Fasting this may be the reason the Lord had a mind to shew that the figurative Testament was only commanded till the true was come and he had now put an end to the Old Testament and instituted a New One and therefore it was that he celebrated the Old before the New The Apostles also for a long time continued the same Custom and after their other Food took this by the Lord 's Appointment but afterwards when many Jews came to communicate it was enjoined in a Synod that every one if he was cleansed from other Sins should first take the Repast of Spiritual Bread before he took that of the Temporal This place which contains an exact Commentary upon the Institution of the Holy Supper has much enrag'd the Papists and they have wrested it into all Senses to avoid the threatning Blow Sixtus Senensis tells us that in another Copy after the words This is my Body that is in a Sacrament was added truly subsisting But this Copy was never yet produc'd though they who reprinted the Work of Druthmarus in the Bibliotheca Patrum of the Cologne Edition have been pleas'd to put this Falsification of Sixtus Senensis in the Margent Cardinal Perron who was as able as any Man of France to justify the fair dealing of Sixtus Senensis in the business of this Manuscript of Lions but did not care to concern himself about it hath boldly maintained that he might with the more ease slip his Neck out of the Collar that this Passage of Druthmarus had been corrupted by the Protestants But it hath already shewn that the Edition published in 1514 by Wimfelingius before Luther begun to write against Leo X. of which the Reverend Dr. Tenison hath a Copy in his Library with the Priviledg of the Emperor Maximilian and the Arms of Pope Leo X. contains this Passage whole and entire So that it is obvious to judge that Druthmarus who was born in Aquitain taught nothing at Corbie but what he had learned from his Infancy and that which was the common Doctrine before Paschasius had undertaken to publish his Extravagancies which he did not till the year of our Lord 835. We ought also here to take notice of an Action that hapned in this Century concerning the Eucharist In the year 844 Bernard Earl of Barcelona and Duke of Septimania made a Treaty with King Charles the Bald near the City of Tholouse in the Abby of St. Saturninus where they mingled the Blood of the Eucharist with some Ink to sign the Treaty they had agreed upon The thing has been published by the famous Baluzius
Peter Waldo and that consequently they are to be look'd upon as a Colony of the Vaudois It is necessary that we prove both these Articles with the greatest clearness that may be as well on the one hand to make it appear that the Bishop of Meaux hath no ground to suppose that these Diocesses were peaceably united to the Church of Rome and in dependence upon it before the Albigenses appeared amongst them and on the other hand to disabuse some of our own People who too lightly have believed because the Albigenses are esteemed by some to be the same with the Vaudois that they borrowed their Light from Peter Waldo The first Article can be very solidly proved by an Argument which seems beyond all Exception I observe therefore that Radulphus Abbot of Tron about the year 1125 would not return from Italy through the Southern Parts of France Audiebat pollutam esse inveterata Haeresi de Corpore Sanguine Domini Because he heard they were polluted with an inveterate Heresy concerning the Body and Blood of our Lord. We see clearly that the Heresy that reigned in these Diocesses was that of Berengarius who had bestowed the Title of Mystical Babylon upon the Church of Rome and not that of the Manichees This Passage of Radulphus of Tron agrees perfectly with what Petrus Cluniacensis and Baronius after him tell us that Peter de Bruis had preached in the Diocess of Arles about the beginning of the 12 th Century Now it is ridiculous to suppose that one can declare a Country to be infected with an inveterate Heresy except there be great numbers of Men who publickly profess it True it is that they bestow the Name of Petrobusians upon the Disciples of Peter de Bruis as if he had been the Author of that Sect but this doth not overthrow what we have said and only shows that the Papists are usually ready to bestow upon the Disciples the Name of their Masters thereby to reflect upon them as Innovators Thus they called the Followers of Berengarius Berengarians as if he had been an Innovator who indeed took upon him the Defence of the old Notions against the Innovations of Paschasius Radbertus In like manner they called those Henricians who followed the Doctrine of Henry who yet followed and preached the Doctrine of Peter de Bruis and Berengarius so that it doth not follow from thence that Henry was the first that ever preached that Doctrine Thus afterwards they gave the Name of Esperonites to the Disciples of Esperonus as if he had been the first Author of that Sect. And is not this very conformable to that antient Method whereby Lindanus Bishop of Ruremonde made as many Heads of the Reformation as there were Men of note that had a hand in that great Work A different Method or the least Article wherein they did not agree with their Brethren serving him for a sufficient Pretence to make them so many different Heads of distinct Parties The Proofs I am about to produce in Confirmation of the second Article do no less show the Truth of what I have laid down that these Diocesses had a long time since a great number of People and Pastors who were of different Opinions from those of the Church of Rome I do acknowledg that towards the end of the 12 th Century there may have been some of the Disciples of Peter Waldo in these Diocesses of Aquitain and Narbon which has occasion'd that several Popish Writers have almost persuaded some Protestants that the Waldenses were the Authors of the Reformation amongst the Albigenses Perrin takes it for granted in the beginning of his History which he was the more easily persuaded to believe since he had observed that the Albigenses have maintained the same Faith with the Waldenses But it is not true that the Waldenses ever carried their Faith into these Countries but they found it there already established and they join'd themselves to those who defended the same before ever any of Waldo's Disciples came thither to seek refuge for themselves This is a Matter of Fact which it is easy to prove beyond controversy for seeing that St. Bernard was in that Country in the year 1147 to preach there and that he made but small progress in it so firmly were they grounded in their Faith we must necessarily infer from hence that they had for a long time been engaged in the same And indeed it appears from the manner of St. Bernard's expressing himself in his Sermons and in his Epistle to the Count of St. Gilles that these Opinions so opposite to those of the Church of Rome had of a long time been entertained in these Countries We have the 4 th Canon of the Council of Tours in the year 1163 which declares the Antiquity of this pretended Heresy in Gascoin and the Country about Tholouse and speaks of their Meetings which the Title of the Canon justly refers to the Albigenses in these Words In the Country about Tholouse there sprung up long ago a damnable Heresy which by little and little like a Cancer spreading it self to the neighbouring Places in Gascoin hath already infected many other Provinces which whilst like a Serpent it hid it self in its own Windings and Twinings crept on more secretly and threatned more Danger to the Simple and Unwary Wherefore we do command all Bishops and Priests dwelling in these Parts to keep a watchful Eye upon these Hereticks and under the pain of Excommunication to forbid all Persons as soon as these Hereticks are discover'd from presuming to afford them any Abode in their Country or to lend them any Assistance or to entertain any Commerce with them in Buying or Selling that so at least by the loss of the Advantages of human Society they may be compell'd to repent of the Error of their Life And if any Prince making himself Partaker of their Iniquity shall endeavour to oppose these Decrees let him be struck with the same Anathema And if they shall be seized by any Catholick Princes and cast into Prison let them be punish'd by Confiscation of all their Goods and because they frequently come together from divers Parts into one hiding-place and because they have no other ground for their dwelling together save only their Agreement and Consent in Error therefore we will that such their Conventicles be both diligently search'd after and when they are found that they be examined according to Canonical Severity This Canon expresly declares 1 st That this pretended Heresy had appeared a long time before 2 dly That it had infected several Provinces of these Diocesses 3 dly That most severe Methods were made use of to reduce them This appears by the Council of Lateran in the year 1179 in the last Chapter And it is plain also from the Letters of the Archbishop of Narbon to King Lewis VII My Lord the King we are extreamly pressed with many Calamities amongst which there is one that most
quick-sighted as the Bishop but because it happens oft that those who stand upon the Shoulders of a tall Man can see a little further than he we must enquire by examining this Matter carefully whether we are to believe Baronius or the Bishop of Meaux The care of the Inquisition has scarely left us any record of Peter de Bruis so that we know scarce any thing of what concerns him but what we have from the report of his Enemies and those Enemies too to that degree that they us'd Fire and Sword to destroy him which alone is sufficiently a strong Presumption that they had little or no Inclination to extenuate the Horridness of his Opinions nor to put a reasonable Sense upon them when according to the Rules of Equity they could have given them a good one Be it as it will Peter Abbot of Clugny bears witness that Peter de Bruis from whom the Albigenses have been called Petrobusians had taught almost 20 years in the Diocesses of Arles Embrun and in Gascoin whither the Persecution which he suffer'd from the Bishops and Archbishops of those Diocesses stirr'd up against him by Peter de Clugny had forc'd him to take refuge He declares that he had made a great number of Disciples and exhorts these Prelats to oppose themselves against the Progress of his Doctrine by forcing him in this his Retreat not only by preaching against him but also if it were needful Vi armatâ per Laicos with armed Force by Lay-men These Bishops answered these Exhortations of Peter de Clugny perfectly well so that after they had obliged him to keep more private they watched him so closely by their Votaries that at last they seized him at St. Gilles where they caus'd him to be burnt in the year 1126 to the great satisfaction of Peter de Clugny and of Baronius who highly extol the Zeal of those who by this means had avenged the Injury he had done to Crosses in burning them to boil his Meat on Good-Friday This is one of the Crimes laid to his Charge by Peter de Clugny a Crime of such a Nature that King Hezekiah may upon the same account be look'd upon as a most profane Person though we know that his Zeal herein was approved by God himself At this rate also John of Jerusalem must be look'd upon as a very negligent Prelate for not burning St. Ephiphanius who at Anablatha had torn the Hangings of a Church in which he found the Pictures of Jesus Christ and of some other Saints And Gregory I must pass for a negligent ignorant Person for not burning Serenus Bishop of Marseilles who broke down the Church-Images as well as Peter de Bruis in a Time when Idolatry was not yet come to its height For as for his boiling Meat with the Wood of the Cross on Good-Friday and eating of the same supposing he had indeed done so though there be great probability to the contrary and that it was only one of those slanderous Imputations the Monks make use of to stir up the Fury of the ignorant Rabble it would at the most have been no more than a notable Action to awaken these Idolaters by setting before them their own Pagan Folly described by the Prophet Isaiah in the 44 th Chapter of his Prophecy But this was not the only Crime of Peter de Bruis he was not only an Image-breaker but he had besides during these twenty Years of his Ministry preached up many Heresies the chiefest of which Peter de Clugny reduceth to five Articles as being more horrid than the rest And because saith he the first Seeds of this erroneous Doctrine were sown and propagated by Peter de Bruis for almost 20 years together they brought forth chiefly five poisonous Shoots against which I oppos'd my self as much as I was able The First consisted in denying that Infants could be saved by Baptism when they are under the Age of Reason and that the Faith of the Parents can be available to those who are not of Age to believe The Second consisted in maintaining that no Temples or Churches ought to be built and that those already built ought to be destroyed and that Christians did not need holy that is consecrated Places to worship God in c. The Third consisted in asserting that they ought to break down and burn the holy Crosses because that Figure and that Instrument wherewith Jesus Christ had been so cruelly tormented and put to Death was so far from being worthy of Adoration Veneration or any other kind of Supplication that it ought to be dishonoured with Indignity broke to pieces and burnt to revenge our Saviour's Torments and his Death The Fourth consisted not only in denying the Truth of the Body and Blood of our Lord which is offer'd up every day and continually by the Sacrament of the Church but also in maintaining that it was nothing and ought not to be offered The Fifth consisted in deriding all the Offerings Prayers and Alms and other good Works done by the Faithful that are living for those that are dead because they could not by any of these means afford them the least Comfort These were the Heresies which Peter de Bruis had taught for 20 Years together which is time enough to know the Opinions of one Man And though Peter de Clugny by his Character of being a Monk and his mortal Enemy was easily persuaded to indulge his Credulity so far as to believe some Reports spread abroad concerning the Disciples of Peter de Bruis that they did not own the Old Testament which put him upon proving the Divinity thereof yet he insisted so little upon it that he shows he was not persuaded in his Conscience that the Petrobusians were Manichees and the Bishop of Meaux ought to have imitated his Discretion in the same Matter But saith the Bishop they rejected Baptism which is one of the Characters of the Manichees If he had said that Peter de Bruis had revived the Error of the Hieracites whom St. Epiphanius speaks of he would have had more Reason on his side for the first Article as Peter de Clugny hath expressed it comes very near the Opinion of the Hieracites but it is absolutely false that it agrees with the Belief of the Manichees concerning that Sacrament The Manichees absolutely rejected Baptism whereas if we will believe Peter de Clugny the Petrobusians did not look upon it as needless but only to Infants In a word Peter de Clugny attributes to them a kind of Anabaptism which maintain'd that Infants were not capable of Baptism and that it was only to be conferr'd upon such as were full grown because at the receiving of it they were to make Profession of their Faith for themselves At this rate we might as well accuse Tertullian St. Gregory Nazianzen and Walafridus Strabo of Manicheism We shall find hereafter that this Error was not general amongst them because the Disciples of Peter de Bruis and Henry reject it as
the one ignorant and loose who were a sort of Manichees the other more learned and remote from such Filthiness who held much the same Opinions as the Calvinists and were called Henricians or Waldenses though the People ignorantly confounded them with the Cathari Bulgarians c. Mezeray had spoken more exactly had he said That the People were abused by the Bishops and Clergy who purposely confounded the ancient Followers of Peter de Bruys and Henry with the Manichees and Cathari to make them odious CHAP. XV. That it doth not appear from the Conference of Alby that the Albigenses were Manichees HAving thus justified Peter de Bruys Henry and his Disciples from the Imputation of Manicheism which the Bishop of Meaux has endeavoured to fasten upon them We will yet further endeavour to clear this Point by examining the Conference of Alby from whence the Bishop thinks that he has drawn a solid Argument to confirm his Imputation Let us see how this Conference is related by Roger Hoveden in his Annals upon the Year 1176. It was in this Year that the Arian Heresy was condemned which had well nigh infected all the Province of Tholouse There were saith he certain Hereticks in the Province of Tholouse who called themselves the Good Men they were supported by the Militia of Lombez and preached and taught the People contrary to the Christian Faith professing themselves not to own the Law of Moses nor the Prophets nor the Psalms nor any part of the Old Testament nor the Doctors of the New Testament save only the Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul with the seven Canonical Epistles the Acts of the Apostles and the Revelation Being question'd concerning their Faith proceeds he and concerning the Baptism of Infants and whether they were saved by Baptism and concerning the Body and Blood of our Lord where it was consecrated or by whom and who were those that received it and whether it were more or better consecrated by a good Man than by a wicked Man and concerning Marriage if a Man and Woman could be saved that knew one another carnally They answered That they would say nothing of their Faith nor of the Baptism of Infants neither were they obliged to say any thing of those Matters Concerning the Body and Blood of our Saviour they said That he who received it worthily was saved and that he who received it unworthily procured his own Condemnation Concerning Marriage they said that a Man and Woman join themselves together to avoid Fornication as St. Paul saith They also declared many things without being questioned as that they ought not to use any Oaths whatsoever as St. John said in his Gospel and St. James in his Epistle They said also that St. Paul had foretold that they ought to ordain Bishops and Priests in the Church and that if these Orders were not conferred upon such as he there commands that then they were neither Bishops nor Priests but ravening Wolves Hypocrites and Deceivers who loved the Salutations in the Market-places the first Places and the first Seats at Feasts who love to be called Masters against the the Commandment of Jesus Christ who wear white and shining Garments who wear Rings of Gold and precious Stones on their Fingers which their Master never commanded them Accordingly they maintained that since the Bishops and Priests were like to those Priests who betrayed our Saviour Jesus Christ they ought not to obey them because they were wicked After divers Reasons alledged on both sides in Presence of the Bishop of Alby they chose and setled Judges on both sides with Consent of the Bishop of Alby After this Roger Hoveden observes that the Prelates cited divers Authorities out of the New Testament for these Hereticks saith he would not be determined but by the New Testament and that afterwards the Bishop of Lions pronounced the definitive Sentence drawn from the New Testament in these terms I Gislebert Bishop of Lions at the Command of the Bishop of Alby and his Assessors do judg that they are Hereticks and I condemn the Opinions of Oliver and his Companions where-ever they are And we judg this from the New Testament I bring therefore for this Reason Proofs to confirm the Divinity of the Old Testament drawn from the New and thereby oppose these Hereticks because they owned that they received Moses the Prophets and the Psalms only in those Particulars which Jesus and his Apostles had by their Testimony approved and not in others whereupon he maintains with reason that if an Instrument or Testimony in Writing is allowed of in one part the whole must needs be owned or else wholly cast aside In the second place saith he We convict them and judg them to be Hereticks by the Authorities of the New Testament for we say that he has not the Catholick Faith who doth not confess it when he is required and when it is exposed to any Danger whence it is that our Lord in the Acts of the Apostles saith to Ananias speaking of Paul For he is to me a chosen Vessel to carry my Name c. These Hereticks also boast themselves that they do not lie whereas we maintain that they lie manifestly for there is Deceit in holding ones Peace as well as speaking wherefore also Paul boldly resisted Peter to his Face because he gave way to the Circumcised In the third place saith he We convict and judg them to be Hereticks by the Authorities of the New Testament for we say that God will have all Men to be saved c. After which he produces the Proofs for Infant-Baptism and solves the Objection taken from Infants wanting Faith without which it is impossible to please God We say that it is by the Faith of the Church or of their God-fathers as the Man sick of the Palsy was healed by the Faith of those who presented him and let him down thorow the Tiling of the House In the fourth place saith he We do convict and judg them as Hereticks by the Authorities of the New Testament because the Body of our Lord cannot be consecrated but by a Priest be he good or bad which he proves because Consecration is made by the Words of Jesus Christ Moreover he proves that the Consecration of the Body of our Lord must be celebrated in the Church and by the Ministers of the Church only whose Authority he asserts from Passages of Scripture Clerks therefore and Lay-men pursues he must be obedient for God's Sake to these Priests Bishops and Deacons be they good or bad according to what our Lord saith The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses's Chair whatsoever therefore they say do ye but do not according to their Works for they say and do not In the fifth place We convict and judg them to be Hereticks by the Authority of the New Testament because they will not own that Man and Wife if carnally joined can be saved and yet they are wont to preach in publick that
as the same Chronicle acquaints us We ought naturally to observe that from the Year 1050 wherein Berengarius appeared at Rome where he maintained his Opinions with so much Courage that Leo of Ostia Abbot of Mont-Cassin owns that there was no Body able to oppose him until the Year 1080 in which the Council of Bourdeaux met the Church of Rome could not overthrow Berengarius's Party though she had imployed by turns both Councils and Violence which shows that there were amongst Berengarius's Followers a considerable Party of the Clergy and of those of Aquitain in particular Neither was it only this Difference in Point of Doctrine that strengthned the Berengarian Party but also the Regulations of Pope Nicholas II and his Successors and above all those of Gregory VII in the Council of Rome in 1074 and 1075. We may see the Effect of his prohibiting Matrimony to Priests as Sigebert has recorded it upon the Year 1074. Gregory the Pope saith he at a Synod held by him anathematiz'd all that came into Preferments by Simony and removed all married Priests from their Functions and forbad Laymen to assist at their Masses by not only an unheard-of Precedent but also as several People thought at that time by an inconsiderate Prejudice contrary to the Opinion of the Holy Fathers who have written that the Sacraments used in the Church to wit Baptism Chrism and the Body and Blood of our Lord have the self-same Efficacy by the secret Operation of the Holy Ghost be the Dispensers of them good or bad Wherefore then since they are quickned by the Holy Spirit so that they are neither amplified by the Worthiness of the good Dispensers nor lessened by the Sins of the Wicked whence is this Man that baptizes which thing hath given so great occasion of Scandal that never was the Holy Church rent with a more dangerous Schism at any time by a prevailing Heresy than it is now whilst some act for Righteousness others against it some openly are guilty of Simony others cover the Stain of Covetousness with an honest Name selling that under the Name of Charity which they pretend to give freely as Eusebius saith of the Montanists whilst under the Name of Offerings they more artificially receive Bribes By this means also things are brought to that pass that there are very few that practise Continence whilst some make only an hypocritical Shew of it for Gain and Boasting and others aggravate their Incontinence by forswearing themselves and by multiplied Adulteries Besides upon this occasion Laymen rise up in Rebellion against the Holy Orders of the Church shaking off the Yoak of Ecclesiastical Subjection Laymen prophane Holy Mysteries and dispute about them baptize Infants using the filthy Excrement of the Ears instead of the Holy Oil and Chrism on their Death-Beds they scorn to receive at the Hands of married Priests the Lord's Provision for their last Journey and the usual Service of Church-Burial The Tithes that are assigned to the Priests they consume with Fire and that by one horrid Profanation you may make an Estimate of the rest Laymen have been often seen to trample the Body of our Lord that had been consecrated by married Priests under their Feet and wilfully spill his Blood upon the ground and many such things against the Laws of God and Man are daily committed in the Church By this means also many false Teachers rise in the Church who by their prophane Innovations alienate the Minds of the common People from the Discipline of the Church This therefore was the great occasion that was given to many of the Clergy and People of Aquitain not to entertain any Communion with the Church of Rome or to submit themselves to the Yoak which she was preparing for all the Western Churches I have in my Remarks upon the History of the Churches of Piedmont given an Account of the Rise of the Opinion of those who believed that the Popes Excommunications deprived such as had been duly ordained of all Power to exercise their Functions and did incapacitate them to confer Orders upon other Ministers This was the true Reason that made all that maintained the Principles of the Church of Rome look upon the Bishops Priests and Deacons who had thus renounced the Roman Communion as a Company of Lay-men and to consider their Ordinations as null I need not repeat the same here it being sufficiently confirmed by the Passage of Sigebert which I just now quoted It appears therefore that the Discipline of the Albigenses was the same that had been practised in the Primitive Church They had their Bishops their Priests and their Deacons whom the Church of Rome at first held for Schismaticks and whose Ministry she at last absolutely rejected for the same Reasons that made her consider the Ministry of the Waldenses as null and void We find in Peter the Abbot of Clugny that he reproacheth the Petrobusians for being join'd with Schismaticks whereas they took the Name of Apostolical Men. See how he speaks to them Vos Magistri Errorum caeci duces caecorum faeces Haeresium reliquiae Schismaticorum O you Masters of Errors and blind Leaders of the Blind the Dregs of Hereticks and the Relicks of Schismaticks Who were these Schismaticks but the Berengarians It is manifest that Union with the Church of Rome being become impossible by reason of the Errors she had defined and the Tyranny she had usurped over the State and Church there was even before his time a Separation made of the greatest Part of the Diocesses of Narbon Tholouse Agen and other places and that Peter Bruys and his Disciples were of his Party appears from his 2 d Epistle which is considerable to this purpose In your Parts saith he the People are re-baptized the Churches profaned the Altars overthrown Crosses burnt and Flesh eaten on the very Day of our Saviour's Passion Priests are whip'd Monks imprisoned and forced by Terrors and Torments to marry The Heads of which Contagion you have indeed by the Divine Assistance and the Help of Catholick Princes driven out of your Country but the Members as I have already said remain yet amongst you infected with this deadly Poison as I my self lately perceived By which Passage we find that the same Disorders had happened in those Diocesses which he speaks of that Sigebert had before observed Bouchet in his Annals of Aquitain understands the thing after the same manner where he speaks thus of the Voyage of St. Bernard In the mean time whilst all these things were a doing Godfry Bishop of Chartres and Innocent's Legate in France and St. Bernard who were to employ'd purge the Schismaticks out of Aquitain or to reduce them to the Union of the Church went first to Nantes c. I have shewed how Henry opposed himself to the Abuses and Superstitions which the Church of Rome endeavoured to introduce into these Diocesses But whatever Efforts the Romish Party made use of to overthrow this happy Work
first made use of a Canon of the Council of Sardica which gave them Power to send Legats into the Provinces to examine the Processes and the Depositions of any Bishops in Cases where any complaint was made After that they had thus accustomed the French Bishops to admit their Legats in this Case they by little and little gain'd another Point when the Princes were weak which was to send some amongst them without any Complaint or Appeal at all and at last after they had submitted to the Yoak Alexander II. established it as a Rule that the Pope ought to have the Government and Administration of all Churches Of these Legats some had a whole Kingdom under their Jurisdiction others some part only they came thither with full Power to depose Bishops yea the Metropolitan himself when ever they pleased to assemble the Councils of their District and to preside therein with the Metropolitan but taking place of him to make Canons to send the Decision of those Matters to the Pope to which the Bishops would not give their Consent as likewise all the Acts of the Council whereof he disposed at his Will and Pleasure And it is to be observed that their Suffrages outweigh'd those of all the Bishops together and that oftentimes by their simple Authority they judg'd and determin'd the Causes of the Elections of Bishops of Benefices of the Excommunications of Lay-men and the like Insomuch that these Assemblies which before were so Sacred and so Soveraign for the supporting and maintaining of Discipline having no Power any longer were to speak properly rather Councils to authorize and ratify the Will and Pleasure of the Pope than any lawful or free Councils So that it was not till the Papacy of Alexander II. and Gregory VII that the Churches of Aquitain saw themselves in danger of losing their Liberty by submitting to the Papal Yoak as well as the rest of the French Churches We are now to see how they avoided this Yoak which was thus imposed upon them in some measure CHAP. XIII Of the Opposition that was made by a Part of these Churches to the Attempts of the Popes and of their Separation from the Communion of Rome before Peter Waldo IT is difficult precisely to set down the Year wherein a considerable Part of these Diocesses rejected the Power of the Pope's Legats and lowdly condemned the Errors which they would have introduced under the Name of Councils which the Popes had so often assembled against Berengarius But we have great reason to conclude that it happened under Gregory VII when he undertook to oblige the Bishops of France to swear an Oath of Fidelity to him in much a like Form as Vassals swear to the Lords of the Fee for in reality it is the very same this strange Piece of Novelty which at one Blow destroy'd all the Rights of the Church excited both Pastors and People to defend their Liberties and to reject this imperious Yoak Then it was also that he endeavour'd to change the Common Service of the Church by striking out all that was not agreeable to the Roman Service which was very proper to inflame the Minds of the People and make them more watchful for the Preservation of the Doctrine and Ceremonies of Religion which they had received from their Ancestors For instance It is certain that in the 11 th Century they changed the Collects which concern'd the Prayer for the Dead We have an Example of it that was inserted in the Decretal of Gregory IX 'T is an Answer of Innocent III. to John de Beauxmains Archbishop of Lions who at that time was retired in the Abby of Clairvaux It contains the Question which that Archbishop who was the Persecutor and Condemner of Peter Waldo propounds to Innocent III. together with the Pope's Answer Your Brothership has enquir'd why there was a Change made in the Service of Saint Leo so that whereas the antient Books express the Prayer thus Grant to us Lord that this Offering may be of advantage to the Soul of thy Servant Leo in the modern Books it is exprest thus Grant to us O Lord we beseech thee that by the Intercession of St. Leo this Offering may be of advantage to us To which we answer saith the Pope That since the Authority of Scripture assures us that he doth an Injury to a Martyr who prays for a Martyr we are by a Parity of Reason to judg the same of other Saints because they need not our Prayers as being perfectly happy and enjoying all things according to their Wishes but it is we rather that stand in need of their Prayers who being miserable are in continuable trouble by reason of the Evils that surround us Wherefore such Expressions as these That such an Offering may be of advantage to this or that Saint for their Glory and Honour which we meet with in most Prayers are thus to be understood That it may conduce to this end that he may be more and more glorified by the Faithful here on Earth Though most suppose it a thing not unworthy of the Saints to assert that their Glory is continually encreased until the Day of Judgment and therefore that the Church may in the mean time lawfully wish for the encrease of their Glorification But whether in this Point that Distinction may take place which teacheth us that of those who are dead some are very good others very bad others indifferently good and others indifferently bad and therefore whether the Suffrages of Believers in the Church for the very good are Thanksgiving for the very bad Comforts to the Living for those who are indifferently good Expiations and for the indifferently bad Propitiations I leave to your Prudence to enquire Moreover the Popes Nicholas II and his Successors undertook to defend the Celibacy of the Clergy by which means a great many Pastors were depriv'd of the Functions of their Ministry which obliged also a vast number of them to separate themselves from the Communion of the Pope whose Creatures after the Decree was past for authorizng Celibacy look'd upon the married Clergy to be no more than simple Lay-men not to mention now that the Multiplicity of Schisms and Anti-popes had reduc'd most of the Diocesses of France into a strange Confusion some holding for one Pope others for another But though we cannot assign the precise Epocha of the beginning of this couragious Opposition to the See of Rome which had no other Original but the just Defence of their Liberties and the Desire of preserving their antient Truths yet thus much seems to be certain as far as we can gather from the poor Remainder of Records which the Barbarity of the Inquisitors hath suffer'd to come down to us 1. That this publick Opposition against the Efforts of Popery was made about the beginning of the 12 th Century 2. That without great Ignorance both in History and Chronology it cannot be supposed that the Albigenses were the Disciples of
to the Priests of the Church of Rome is wholly unprofitable and that neither the Pope nor any one else in the Romish Church can absolve any Man of Sin but that they have power to absolve all those from their Sins who will join themselves to their Sect by the Laying on of Hands This last Clause is also laid to the charge of the Vaudois viz. That they have Power from God alone as the Apostles had to hear Confessions both of Men and Women that believe them and of imposing Penance upon such as confess to them as Fasting and several Repetitions of the Lord's Prayer whereupon they absolve their Penitents and that this Absolution and Penance is as available to the Salvation of their Souls as if they had been confessed to their own Priest That here is some wresting or mutilation of the Opinion of the Vaudois is manifest from the Confession of a certain Woman who as we read declared her Faith to this purpose That God alone forgives Sin and that he to whom Confession of Sins is made gives only his Advice what the Person ought to do and so enjoins Penance which any wise and prudent Man may do whether he be a Priest or no. That the Opinions of the Albigenses that were proper to them were that there be two Lords the one Good and the other Evil That the Body of Christ is not in the Eucharist but only meer Bread That Baptism is of no use One of the Albigenses was said to believe that the Baptism of Water celebrated by the Church stands Infants in no stead because they did not consent to the Sacrament but cried at the receiving of it I believe saith he who examined these Acts that they denied Baptism to be the Instrument of Regeneration or perhaps they might be against Infant-Baptism That an external Anointing of the Sick with material Oil was of no use That the Orders of the Church of Rome had no Power of binding and loosing since they themselves who conferred them were great Sinners That Marriage is always join'd with Sin and never can be without Sin and that it could never have been instituted by the good God That our Lord did not assume a real humane Body and true Flesh of our Nature and that he did not truly but only in Likeness rise again in the same and perform the other Works of our Salvation and that he never really ascended to the right-hand of the Father They deny the Resurrection of the Body but in the Declaration of Petrus Anterius a chief Teacher amongst them this is more clearly and distinctly explained that they feign that certain spiritual Bodies and a certain internal Man should rise again in such sort of Bodies And elsewhere they express themselves that though the Souls of Men shall come to Judgment yet they shall not come in their own Bodies They said that the Souls of Men were Spirits which fell from Heaven for their Sins so that they seem to have believ'd the pre-existence of Souls Man they say must not worship what he eats Moreover it is ascribed to them that they believe Man is saved by the Laying on of Hands which they confer on their Believers and that by the same means all Sins are forgiven without Confession and Satisfaction That they can bestow the Holy Ghost for Salvation upon those whom they receive That the Virgin Mary never was a carnal Woman but their Church which they say is true Repentance and that this is the Virgin Mary The very Obscurity of these Words shews that this Opinion is wrested because it is better exprest in another place thus That God never entred the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that he only is the Mother Brother and Sister of God who keeps the Commandments of God the Father These are said to be the Doctrines of the Albigenses whereof none are ascribed to the Waldenses but others different from these whereof we find no mention made in the Opinions of the Albigenses and they are these That all Judgment is forbid by God and that it is contrary to the divine Prohibition for any Judg in any Cause whatsoever to judg or sentence any Man to Punishment or Death That Indulgencies granted by the Prelats of the Church of Rome are of no use or efficacy That there is no Purgatory for Souls after this Life and that consequently the Prayers and Suffrages of Believers for the Dead are of no use to them That the Soul when it departs from the Body goes either to Paradise or Hell That there are no more than three Orders in the Church of Bishops Priests and Deacons From these Acts it appears how much the Rites and Ceremonies of the Albigenses differed from those practis'd by the Vaudois Besides saith the Author of the Extract the Rites and Institutions of them both were very different Of the Albigenses there were two Sorts some who professed their Faith and Rites and they were called perfect or comforted others who had entred into a Covenant with the former Sort called Perfect which they call la Convenenza the Agreement that at the end of their Life they should be received by them into their Sect. This Reception is frequently called by them Exercise and is performed in this manner The Benedicite or the Blessing conferred upon one Molinerius when he was sick Bernard Goes one of the Albigenses held the Hands of the sick Person between his own Hands and besides held a certain Book over him wherein he read the Gospel of St. John In the Beginning was the Word and deliver'd to the sick Person a fine Thread to tie about him as a Mark that he was admitted into their Heresy upon some others it is said that they laid a white Linen Cloath and besides that many Genuflections were performed by the Bed-side This Reception was supposed to save the Soul of him who was received and was call'd a Spiritual Baptism or Consolation a Reception and a good End and sometimes a Melioration by means of which they believ'd that the Person was sanctified so that it was not lawful for a Woman to touch any one that was thus received Now because it might sometime happen that the Person thus received after his recovery might relapse into his former Defilements therefore they always deferr'd this Reception till the extreamest Weakness when there was no longer hopes of Life for fear they might afterward lose the Good they had received For which reason also some sick Persons amongst them though the Person who thus initiated them was already come yet were not received because they were not believed to be at the point of Death But they who were thus received in their Sickness were commanded to put themselves upon Hardship that is to hasten their own Death by abstaining from all Meat and there are several Examples of those who are said to have kill'd themselves not only with Fasting but by opening of a Vein wounding of themselves yea and
were frequent Disputes held with the Hereticks several times at Viride Folium and at Pamiers but the famous Disputation was at Montreal where two Noble-men were chosen Arbitrators Bernardus de Villa nova and Bernardus Arrensis and two of the Commons Raimond Godius and Arnoldus Ribera but they who were accounted Hereticks could not agree about any thing the Names of the chiefest of them were these Ponticus Jordanus Arnoldus Aurisanus Arnoldus Othonus Philibertus Casliensis Benedictus Thermus They all constantly affirmed that the Church of Rome was not the Holy Church nor the Spouse of Christ but a Church that had imbibed the Doctrine of Devils that she was that Babylon which St. John describes in the Revelation the Mother of Fornications and Abominations cover'd over with the Blood of the Saints That what the Church of Rome approved of was not approved by the Lord That the Mass was neither instituted by Christ nor by his Apostles but was meerly a human Invention The same hath been owned by Carolus Molineus the Glory of the Bar of France who declares that the Albigenses of Provence taught this very thing expresly in the Reign of Lewis XII which was afterwards taught by those of the Reformed Religion in France This Testimony is alledged by Camerarius in his Historical Account of the Brethren of Bohemia This obliged Vignier in his Historical Library to contemn all the Calumnies cast upon the Albigenses In his Account of the year 1206 he relates that a Gascon a Man of Reputation assured him that he had read one of their Confessions in the old Gascon Language which was preached before the late Chancellor de l' Hospital a little before the second Troubles of France which had not one word of these Opinions but only those Articles which we formerly ascribed to the Waldenses Amongst which they expresly declared that they received the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament and that they rejected every Doctrine that was not grounded upon or authorized by them or was contrary to any one Point of Doctrine that may be found there According to which Maxim they confessed that they rejected and condemned all the Ceremonies Traditions and Ordinances of the Church of Rome which they declared to be a Den of Thieves and the Whore that is spoken of in the Revelation Upon which account also the Colloquies Disputes and Conferences which the Legats of the Pope and their Commissioners had together were only upon these Points as we shall prove by the Testimony of James de Ribera in his Book entituled His Collections about the City of Tholouse The third Thing that we are to observe is that this Conformity of Faith between the Waldenses and the Albigenses has made many People take them for the very same I suppose there is no Reader that is ever so little just but will allow me to make a very great difference between the Accounts of the Inquisitors and the Truth The Inquisitors make the Albigenses guilty of the Errors of the Cathari and Manichees as if they had been all one and that they had exactly answered the Description which is given us of them in the Directory of the Inquisitors by Emericus But we have other ways of knowing from their own Confessions of Faith that they were not at all polluted by Manicheism and the most part of those Authors that have writ with any degree of Honesty call them Waldenses because they held the same Faith and Opinions The same Authors acknowledg that it was against the Waldenses that St. Bernard preached in Languedock and that it is with them whom they promiscuously call Albigenses that those Conferences were held which the Bishop of Meaux owns to have been held with the Albigenses This is acknowledged by James de Ribera Counsellor of State in his Collections concerning the City of Tholouse that are set down in the Catalogue of the Witnesses of the Truth This is owned by Gretzer the Jesuit in his Prolegomena to the Authors who have written concerning the Sect of the Waldenses where he acknowledgeth that the Waldenses and Albigenses were the same and were called insabbatati because of their Shoes And that the Albigenses and Waldenses differ only in their Names Cardinal Hosius also had the fame Notion of them in his Book concerning the Sacrament of the Eucharist where he speaks of the Henricians and Petrobusians This was the Opinion of Andrew Favin in his History of Navarre where he saith that the Heresy of the Albigenses is otherwise termed the Heresy of the Waldenses Genebrard in his Chronology saith expresly that the Fathers of the Calvinists were the Petrobusians the Henricians and the Albigenses and it is well known that the Calvinists are no Manichees Catel in his History of Tholouse acknowledgeth that the Henricians were the Forerunners of the Albigenses and that they had not this Name till after the Council of Alby in the year 1178. CHAP. XIX Whether the Albigenses were Manichees because they accused the Pope of being the Antichrist AS one Day gives Light to another so the Bishop of Meaux hath at last discover'd that the Accusation charged upon the Pope by the Albigenses as being the Antichrist was a Character of Manicheism He thought fit to reveal this great Secret to the World in his History of the Variations and afterwards he makes it an express Character of Manicheism in his Explication of the Revelation But saving the Reverence due to this Prelate there is nothing falser nothing that seems more to be raving For 1. Hath he found this Character of the Manichees in the Writings of Archelaus Bishop of Mesopotamia which the late Mr. Bigosa hath communicated to the Publick or in St. Cyril of Jerusalem who confutes the Manichees in his Catechetick Lectures 2. Hath he found any thing like it in the Writings of St. Epiphanius who hath given us so large a Catalogue of their Heresies 3. Hath he found any thing to this purpose in St. Augustin who hath writ so many Books against these Mad-men or in St. Leo in his Epistle to Turribius Bishop of Tarracon 4. Hath he found any such thing in the Treatise of Predestinatus concerning Heresies published by Sirmondus 5. Hath he found this Character of the Manichees in any of those Authors that have written since as in Isidore of Sevill in Johannes Damascenus in the Catalogue of Heresies published by Cotelerius 6. Hath he found any thing to this purpose in Petrus Siculus who lived in the 9 th Century and who conversed and disputed at Tibrica with the Manichees whose Opinions he sets down All the Greek Authors which speak of the Manichees before and after the 9 th Century and all the Latin Authors without so much as excepting one only know of no such thing who could therefore discover this Character of Manicheism to the Bishop We must conclude that the Bishop who hath made a Discovery which none of the Antients no nor