made an Exhortation to them putting them in mind of the mercies of God and of that newness of life which they ought to live in for the time to come requiring them in token of their Confent S. Elig hom viii 11. and promise thereunto to hold up their Hands At length suffering himself to be prevailed upon by the intreaties of the Church and being perswaded of the sincerity of their Conversion he gave them Solemn Absolution Then they shaved and polled themselves quitted their Penitential habits and began to live like the other Faithful There was without doubt great diversity in these outward Ceremonies according to the difference of times and places But they all tended to the same end and had a powerful Effect to make the offender sensible of the Enormity of sin and of the difficulty of recovering out of it and to keep those still within bounds who as yet had preserved their Innocence Should a Man saith St. Austin too easily return Serm. xxiv de divers to the Happiness of his first Estate he would look upon the falling into Mortal sin as a meer Triffle NO PERSON how great soever in XXXVII Christian Princes the World was exempt from Pennance Princes were as Subject to it as private Persons and the Example of Theodosius will never be forgotten in the Church In the foregoing Ages none could have believed that the great ones would ever have submitted themselves to the severity of the Churches Discipline They could not possibly conceive how the Humility and Mortification of a Christian could have been reconciled with absolute power and vast possessions 'T was this undoubtedly that made Tertullian say that Apol. c. xxi the Caesars had become Christians long before if they could have been at the same time Caesars and Christians and Origen Cont. Cels. L. viii speaks of it much after the same manner This strange work hath God at last brought to pass in the sight of the whole World And this is that mighty Change that gave Date to the Liberty of the Church that period of time I am now speaking of Presently upon the Conversion of Constantine the name of Jesus Christ was written upon the Roman Ensigns and his Cross displayed in the midst of their Armys That Instrument of the most Infamous Punishment was now turned into the most glorious Ornament of the Imperial Diadem The Emperor had an Oratory in his Palace where he shut himself up whole Days together to read the Holy Scriptures Observing the stated Euseb iv vita Const c. xvii xxi hours of Prayer and more especially on Sundays upon which he obliged the Heathens themselves to rest from their Labours He caused to be carryed in his Sozom. i. Hist c. viii Army a Tent in the form of a Church for singing Divine Service in and Administring the Sacraments to the Faithful and to that purpose he was always attended by some Priests and Deacons He Euseb iii. vita Const c. xlvii made Constantinople a City perfectly Christian The Eve of Easter was Celebrated there with a most magnificent Illumination not only within the Churches but without All over the City there were set up lighted Tapers or rather Pillars of Wax which gloriously turned the Night into Day In the principal Squares of the City one might have seen the Fountains adorned with the Images of the good Shepherd or of Daniel in the Lion's Den. There were no Idols or Temples of the false Gods to be found within her Walls Who knows not how Magnificenly Constantine treated the Fathers of the Nicence Council and the Honours he did them He furnished them with carriages Euseb iii. Vita Const c. vi vii to bring them from the most Remote parts of that vast Empire he defrayed their Expences all the time of their Session and sent them home Loaded with Presents He burn't the Bills of Accusation that had been preferred to him against the Bishops he Kissed the Scarrs of the Confessors that still had upon them the Socrat hist i. c. v. viiii marks of the Persecution he entred the Council without his Guards appeared there with a Modest and Respectful Air and did not sit down till the Bishops gave him a sign At the Conclusion of the Council he made a great Feast for them in his Palace and sate at Table with them Then it was that Jesus Christ was manifestly seen Reigning over the Kings of the Earth Theodosius the Great did yet more Honour to Religion and that by the practice of those vertues it requires He was much in Prayer apply'd himself to God in his greatest Affairs and ascribed to him the success of his Armes He had suffered himself to be transported into a Passion against Theod. hist Eccle. iv c. 17. the Inhabitants of Thessalonica The Sin was great but his Repentance was Proportionable and he valued none of the Bishops so highly as St. Ambrose because he found none that less flattered him His Empress hath also an high Character given her in History for her Piety and for her Charity towards the Poor The same Spirit run through the Family but shined forth most brightly in St. Pulcheria their Grand-daughter who at the Age of fifteen together with her two Sisters Consecrated herself to God by a Vow of Virginity and who without quiting the Court led a Life in it so retired so full of Business so Religious that the Writers of those times compared the Palace to a Monastery the Holiest thing they could think of In this School of vertue she caused to be brought up the young Emperor Theodosius Socr. vii c. 22. her Brother making him practice the same exercises of Religion with her self He rose constantly at the dawn of Sozom. ix c. i. Theod. iv c. 36. the Day to join with his Sisters in singing the Praises of God Prayed often frequented the Churches and presented them largely He fasted often principally on Wednesdays and Fridays His Palace was furnished with a choice Library of Ecclesiastical Writers He had the Holy Scripture by Heart and discoursed of it with the Bishops as readily as if he had been one of them himself He gave a great respect to them and had an honour for all good Christians He caused the Reliques of many Saints to be translated with great Pomp. He founded many Hospitals and many Monasteries His Sister did not only exercise him in the Practices of Religion but caused him to be taught with the greatest care all the Accomplishments proper for an Emperor He had the best Masters to instruct him in Learning and others to teach him the Exercises of Riding and Arms. He was used to the bearing of heat and Cold Hunger and Thirst She her self Tutored him in all the Rules of Decency and Deportment in his Habits in his Gestures in his Gate and Posture of walking She brake his practice of falling into loud and suddain fits of Laughter taught him how to
Paganism and to that end underpropped it with the Allegorical explications of some Philosophers Fables These were the Platonicks of those times far from the good Sense and Solidity of Plato and the ancient Academicks his Disciples These fanciful Wits picking up what was most weak in the Doctrin of Plato and mixing it with that of Pythagoras and with the Mysteries of the Aegyptians patch't up a kind of Religion which at the bottom was founded upon Magick and which under the pretence of Worshiping good or bad Spirits authorized all sorts of Superstitions Such was the Religion of Julian the Apostate and we see somewhat of it in the Maxims of Apuleius in Porphyry and Jamblichus But there were few that penetrated into these subtilties and Paganism sunk every day more and more into Contempt Among so great a multitude of new Christians it was impossible that some should not pass in the Crowd drawn in only by Temporal Considerations upon the hopes of making their Fortunes under Christian Princes Complaisance to their Friends and Relations the fear of displeasing their Masters and in a word upon August in Jo. vi 26. tract ii all those Motives which now a Days make Hypocrites and false Zealots But these for the most part contented themselves with the bare Character of Catechumens and being loath to submit themselves to that strictness of Life which Christianity requires they were for deferring their Baptism as long as they could and often to the point of Death that so they might to the last continue the unhappy liberty of committing Sin without Subjecting themselves to the Discipline of Pennance Others proceeded even to Baptism and were V. Aug. de Catechiz c. xvii Cyr. Hier. Procatech not in their Hearts true Converts Some light inquisitive People were drawn in purely out of a curiosity to know the Mysteries which were revealed to none but the Faithful Their Superstition made them greedy after Religion and ambitious of being initiated into all sorts of Ceremonies and to participate in every thing which bore the name of Sacred without distinguishing the true God or the true Religion Among so many pretenders to Christianity what caution soever the Prelates could use They were but Men and it was impossible they should not sometimes be mistaken Many even of those that were Christians in good earnest grew every Day more and more remiss The fear of Martyrdome Leo. Serm. 6. in Epiph c. iii. Cypr. de Lapsis Dionys. Alex apud Euseb vi Hist 34. Euseb viii Hist c. ii was removed and Death did not now appear to them so near at hand Their security from outward danger betrayed them into that great hazard of Laying aside their Watchfulness Even in the state of persecution during the Intervals of their Troubles there was perceived a sensible abatement of Christian fervour Of this the Fathers very much complain ascribing the hottest Persecutions to this remisness of Zeal when ever they enjoyed the least Respite from their Enemies How must it then have been with them in a sure and settled Peace when t was not only not dangerous to be a Christian but also Honourable and advantageous The Princes and Magistrates being Converted to the Faith still maintained their Secular Grandeur and were never the less good Christians for looking after their temporal concerns and exercising their Charges So the common sort of Believers seeing Religion and Worldly greatness so fairly reconciled in these examples began to think there was no such great danger in Honours Riches and other enjoyments of this Life Thus the Love of pleasure Covetousness and Ambition revived in them The World was now become Christian yet still the World was the same They began now to Distinguish between Christians and Saints and Religious We find St. John Chrysostom frequently complayning of it that Chrysost ad fidel patr Idem Hom. i. in Matth. â—or in fi his Hearers to excuse their Earthly mindedness and too great Solicitude about the affairs of this World were wont to tell him We are no Monks we have Wives and Children to provide for and Families to look after As if the Christians of Rome or of Corinth whom St. Paul calls Saints and to whom he ascribes so high a Perfection were not Marryed Persons and led in the concerns of this World the same common life with other Men. To this add the Corruption of Nature that turns Food into Poyson The Church had in her publick Offices some kind of Observances more agreeable to outward Sense These were easily abused to the Flesh and applyed to wrong Ends contrary to the Iustitution of them The Sunday Rejoycings and those of the other Grand Solemnyties exceeded sometimes the Bounds of Sobriety and Basil Orat. de Ebriet Christian Moderation So that in the fourth Age they were obliged as I have Aug. ep xxix nov before observed to abolish the custome of making Entertainments at the Feasts of the Martyrs and the Clergy were also Prohibited from being present at those of Marryages Origen hath well observed Orig. cont Cels. how difficult a thing it is to reconcile sensible Pleasure with Spiritual joy The Body is a Slave which if too much Humour'd and Pamper'd with Food Sleep or other such like Indulgences will presently become Insolent and grow upon us Usurp upon the better part take off the mind from applying it self to Spiritual things and weaken its power of bearing up against Temptation Nor can the Spirit maintain its dominion over the Flesh but by a severe Conduct and continual Application I speak here of the same times I have just now described in the third part and do rip up in them also the least Faults that so I may the better trace out the very first beginnings of the Declension of Christian Piety without designing in the least to invalidate what I there said of the Manners of the Church in general or of its Discipline which was still preserved in its full vigor And above all the Sanctity of their Clergy was extraordinary However it must be granted there were some Prelates too sensible of the great Honours that were paid them And some also were accused of having misemployed the great Estates of which they had the Disposal One may see what Complaints were preferred to the Council of Chalcedon against Dioscorus and Ibas upon this account I believe Conc. Chalc. Act. iii. x. there can scarce be found any of the Orthodox Bishops of those times justly charged with the same Reproach But as the Arrians and other Hereticks had also their Bishops and Priests Their Passionate Conduct lessened in the eyes of the World the Honour of the order it self 'T was a great scandal to the Pagans and weak Christians to see Persons that had such Venerable Titles Masters of so little Temper and disputing with such heat against the other Bishops and Priests outraging them with Injuries and aspersions both in their Discourses and Writings Coming to the
Author and those whom he only mentions in general Not but that the greatest part of the Bishops of these times declined Writing Books out of Modesty for fear of divulging the Mysteries of their Religion for want of Leisure and by reason of the Persecutions which suffered but a few of them to Live any great Age. But many occasions there were that forced some of them upon Writing both concerning the affairs of the Churches and in the defence of Religion against the Hereticks and Pagans Besides there were so many Persons of learning so many Philosophers and Orators throughout the whole Empire especially in Greece and the East that there were always found among the Christians a great number of good Writers The Faithful were Advised to abstain from reading the Books of the Heathens since they might possibly overthrow the Faith of the Weak and at best signified Const Apost i. 5. little For what faith an ancient Author would you have which you may not meet with in the Word of God If you are for History you have the Books of the Kings If for Philosophy and Poetry you have the Prophets the Book of Job and the Proverbs of Solomon where you will find more true Wit and Spirit than in all the Poets and Philosophers because they are the Words of God who is Wisedom its slef If for Songs you have the Psalms If for Antiquities Geneses In a Word the Glorious Law of the Lord furnishes you with all necessary precepts and useful Directions Yet the Bishops and Priests found it to their purpose to read the profane Authors and made good use of them in their Contests with the Gentiles Fighting them with their own Weapons the Authorities of their Poets and Philosophers They professed to embrace all Truth whence soever it came and wheresoever they found it they challenged it for their own as being the Disciples of Jesus Christ who Logos St. Clem. Al. I. Strom. is the Word that is to say the sovereign Reason 'T WAS principally to the Rich that VII Their Employments Occupations and Professions they recommended the reading of the Scripture as their constant Employment and a proper Remedy against the Sins of Idleness and Curiosity As for others they followed every one his Calling that they might have where withal to maintain Const Apost i. iv themselves pay their Debts and give Alms. And they took care to chuse such callings as were most consistent with Retirement and Humility Many of their Rich ones reduced themselves to a voluntary Poverty by distributing what they had among the Poor especially in times of Persecution thereby to put themselves in a readiness for Martyrdom The first Disciples of the Apostles who laboured together with them in the Propagation of the Gospel practiced the same Method but for a nobler end They sold their Possessions and gave the price of them to Eus iii. 17. the Poor that so they might be more disengaged and at liberty to quit their Country Travel abroad and carry the Gospel into the most distant parts of the World Many Christians laboured with ii Thes iii. 6 c. Cass de Sp. Acced c. vii Const Ap. i. iv ii ult Clem. Paedag iii. c. x. their Hands only to avoid the Sin of Idleness For they were earnestly exhorted to shun this particular Vice among many others the inseparable Companions of it as a restless temper Curiosity Dectraction insignificant Visits Gadding and Rambling Prying into and Censuring the Actions of their Neighbours On the contrary all Persons were advised to keep themselves quiet and not meddle in other Mens matters and to be employed upon some useful Business but principally in the Works of Charity toward the Sick the Poor and all others whose Condition required their Assistance The Christians Life therefore was a continued course of Prayer Reading and Labour which regularly succeeded one the other in their proper Hours and suffered no other interuptions than just what the necessities of Life required But what Occupation soever they followed they always made it but as by-work in comparison of Religion which they look'd upon Const Ap. ii 61. 63. as their main concern and that one thing needful about which they were to be imployed all the Days of their Life They pretended not to any particular Profession or Denomination but purely and simply to be Christians They owned no other Title or Character but that and when the Judge Interrogated them concerning their name their Country their Quality their answer to all was I am a Christian They liked not such Employments as too much busy and dissipate the Thoughts as Merchandizing Soliciting of Business bearing Publick Offices Yet they always continued in the Callings they followed Orig. Cont. Cels viii in fin I Cor. vii xx Tertul. de Cor. c. xii Tert. Apol. c. xxxvii before their Baptism if there were nothing in them inconsistent with Religion Thus Soldiers were not upon their turning Christians obliged to quit the Service they were only taught to observe the Soldier 's Rule laid down in the Gospel to be content with their Wages and to Luk. iii. 13. abstain from Fraud and Violence There were a great number of Christians that bore Arms Witness the Legio Fulminans in the time of Marcus Aurelius and the Theban Legion who all of them togegether with their Tribune St. Mauritius Patiently submitted to Martyrdom tho' with their Swords in their Hands The old Military Discipline of the Romans as yet continued in force which consisted principally in Frugality in Labour in Obedience in Patience all of them Vertues proper for a Christian to be Exercised in Yet some of them refused to list Acta Mar. Theb. ap Baron an ccxcvii Acta St. Marcelli Centur. ap Bar. an ccxcviii n. ii themselves and others already engaged quitted the Service to avoid the joining with the Infidels in their Superstitions as the Eating of things Offered to Idols the adoring the Ensingns and in them the false Gods whose Images they bore the Swearing by the Genius of the Emperor and Crowining themselves with Flowers at Tertul. de Corona their profane Solemnities THE Christians Fasted often according VIII Their Fasts Mat. ix xv to what our Saviour had said That after he should be taken from them his Disciples should Fast From the very first Ages of Christianity in Remembrance of this that is of the Passion of Jesus Christ they had their fixed and solemn Fasts as that of Lent for every Year and of Wednesday and Friday for every Week They Fasted also for the Ordinations and upon several other occasions when the Bishops prescribed Fasts for the publick Necessities tosay nothing now of their Pennances and particular Devotions On their Fasts they eat but once a Day and that not till towards the Evening that is in Lent not till after the Vespers toward the beginning of the Night and on other Days not till after three a Clock
Learning And indeed this was a thing altogether new to them For there was no Provision made by the Aug. de vera Rel init Heathens for the Instruction of the common People in matters of Religion They had only the Lectures of their Philosophers who Read to them the precepts of Orig Contr. Cels. Morality but never meddled with the proper Offices of Religion Besides as all the Hereticks passed under the name of Christians they ascribed to the whole Body of Christians all the Wild Fancies of the Velentinians and the other such like Visionaries encountred by Irenaeus The Heathens confounded all these Extravagancies with the Catholick Faith so that the Religion of the Christians appeared V. Baron an cl xxix n. 17. and 28. to them a meer mess of Infatuations vented by a parcel of Ignorant Crack-Brain'd Fools For what reason said they can you Euseb Praepar i. cap. ii give us why we should quit the established Religions Pleading so long a Prescription of Time recommended with such a pomp of Ceremonies confirmed by the Authority of so many Kings and Legislators and received by the Consent of all People both Greeks and Barbarians and that to embrace a Novel Invention of we know not who and run our selves a ground upon the Jewish Fables Or if you have a mind to turn Jews why are you not Jews thorow out But your Extravagancy is unaccountable in Worshiping the God of the Jews whether they will or no and in Worshipping him in such a manner as the Jews themselves Condemn as much as we and in pretending to their Law with which you have nothing to do 'T is true the Morals of Christians were very Exact and their Practises answered their Principles But all the World was then full of Philosophers who pretended no less than the Christians both to the teaching of Vertue and to the Practising of it There were among them also many who in the first Ages of the Church perhaps in Imitation of the Christians ran about the World from Place to Place pretending to make it their business to reform Mankind and thereupon submitting themselves to many Hardships and undergoing a kind of Persecution by the ill Treatment they sometimes met with as Apollonius Tyanaeus Musonius V. Baron an l xxv n. 6. Damis Epictetus and some others The Philosophers had for many Ages before been in great Reputation 'T was taken Orig. Con. Cels. for granted that nothing more could be added to what had already been said by some of them They could not imagin that Barbarians should have any thing better to offer than Pythagoras Socrates Plato or Zeno. They concluded that if these new Pretenders had any thing that was good in them 't was but somewhat which they had borrowed from those Old Sages Besides the Philosophers were a more Agreeable sort of Professors and their Principles better Accommodated to the inclinations of Mankind than those of the Christians The greatest part of them did not condemn Pleasure nay some of them made Pleasure the Sovereign good They left every one to enjoy his own Opinion and take his own way of Living If they could not perswade Men their method was to rally and dispise them and that was all the trouble they gave them But above all they took care not to pick Quarrels with the established Religions Some believed them and gave Mystical Explications of the most Ridiculous Fables Others troubled their Heads no farther about matters of Religion then to Acknowledge some first being the Author of Nature leaving the publick Superstitions to those whom they believed incapable of higher attainments Even the Epicureans who of all others discovered themselves the most Openly against the popular opinions concerning the Gods Assisto Divinis Horat yet freely Assisted at the Sacrifices and in what part of the World So ever they were joyned with the rest in the outward Forms of Religious Worship there Practised In this all their Wise Men agreed not to oppose the Customes established either by the Laws of the Countrey or Prescription of Time Their Belief of a Plurality of Gods went so far that they imagined every Nation every City every Family had Gods of its own who took a more peculiar care of them and whom therefore they were to Worship after a more peculiar Manner So that they counted all Religions good in such Places where they had been of a long time Received But the Superstitious Women among them and other Weak and Ignorant People were always hunting after new Religions imagining that the more Gods and Goddesses they worshipped and the greater number and varietie of Ceremonies they observed the more Devout and Religious they were The Wise Men among Liv. xxix them and their Politicians did what they could to Restrain this restless Humour and keep it within some Bounds and therefore were against all Innovations in matters of this Nature Above all they Forbad all strange and Forreign Religions and this the Romans made a Fundamental Principle of their Politicks To perswade their People to believe that 't was to the Beneficence of their Titlar Deitys that Rome was beholding for all its Glorious Successes and the Grandeur of its Empire That their Gods must needs have been more Puissant Deitys than any of the rest since they had brought under their Subjection all the Nations of the World Thus when the Christian Religion was entirely established the Pagans failed not to Impute to this Change of Religion the Fall of the Empire which Succeeded soon upon it And to answer these False Suggestions was St. Augustin obliged to compose his large Treatise entituled De Civitate Dei The Contempt the Christians had of Death was not by the Heathens looked upon as any great matter They saw every Day their voluntier Gladiators who for some inconsiderable Reward or perhaps for just nothing at all but to shew their own Bravery fearlessly exposed themselves to the Swords of their Antagonists and ventured having their Throats Cut in the open Amphitheatre They had Dayly examples before them of Persons and those of the best sort who upon any little Disgust would fairly Dispatch themselves out of the World Some of Vel jactatione ut quidam Philosophi l. vi §. vii F. de injusto rump ire their Philosophers as the Lawyers report of them did the like purely out of Vanity of which Lucian's Peregrinus is a famous Instance And therefore seeing the Christians Prosessing a Renunciation of the Enjoyments of this Life and placing all their happiness in that to come they rather wondered that they did not kill themselves They tell us Saith St. Justin Justin Ap. ◠init Go then kill your selves without any more ado get you gone to your God and let us hear no more of you And Antoninus Pro-Consul of Asia seeing the Christians Crowding the Court and offering themselves to Martyrdom cryed out to them Ah! Tertul. ad Scap. c. ult Wretched Creatures
speaks with great vehemence concerning the last Judgment Hell and Paradise it make honourable mention of Moses and the Prophets of the Apostles and Martyrs and gives high Encomiums to Jesus Christ himself Besides it imitates several of the External Parts of Christianity The Christians Prayed seven times a Day the Musulmans Prayed five The Christians had their Annual Fast of forty Days the Musulmans have theirs of twenty nine keeping always strict Fast till Night as the Christians then did The Christians keep Sunday Holy the Musulmans Friday We assemble in our Churches to Pray to God hear the Reading of the Scriptures and the Instructions of the Priest they also Pray after their manner in their Moschs Read their Alcoran there and hear the Preachings of their Doctors They make Pilgrimages to the Land which they Esteem Holy and visit the Tombs of their pretended Martyrs ' They give much Alms and have Hospitals Founded among them in great numbers They have also some sorts of Religious Persons who live in Common and afflict the Body after a Terrible manner For there is no sort of Exteriour Austerities which Persons without Vertue may not Imitate either out of Vain Glory or for Interest But they can never bring themselves to live in Silence and Labour without being seen of Men. To do this a Man must be a Christian Our Travellers Bred up in the midst of Christendom are often affected with this outside of Religion and those Moral Vertues they meet with amongst the Infidels and sometimes return Home staggered in their Thoughts and inclining to believe that all things are indifferent in matters of Religion Under how great Temptations then must those poor Christians have layn that were Born under the power of those Insidels and obliged to pass their whole Lives with them kept under Oppression by them and having no other means of making their condition Comfortable in this World but by quitting the Faith of their Ancestors 'T is a wonder they were not all Perverted And the number of Christians still remayning throughout all the Levant after a Thousand Years of Temptation is a manifest proof of the power of the Gospel and of the weakness of Mahometism The Christians also that were subjects to the Emperors of Constantinople might be easily corrupted by their Commerce with the Mahometans and the several sorts of Hereticks that Infected all the East The Judgment of the Emperor Leo Author of the Sect of the Iconoclasts is supposed to have been corrupted by the Jews and Sarasins or the Arabian Mahometans The Emperor Michael Balbus passed for no better than half-a Jew The Young Emperor Michael the third with the Lewd Companions of his Debauches acted over in a most execrable mockery the Holy Ceremonies of our Religion even to the Tremendous Sacrifice it self and not long V. Baron an 853. Curopal after him I meet with another Young Emperor Alexander the Son of Leo the Philosopher openly Blaspheming against Christianity and Regretting the Suppression of Idolatry This makes me suspect that of all Christians the Greeks were the first Authors of Libertinism in matters of Religion Not that I would be thought to fix this suspicion on the whole Nation of them but only upon some of their great ones and other particular Persons For in these times generally speaking Religion bore up nobly throughout the whole Greek Empire They had among them great Doctors great Bishops and eminent Religious besides many Martyrs too in defence of the Holy Images IN the West the Faith was hitherto XLVIII The Manners of the West The disorders of the tenth Age. kept Inviolate It never enter'd into the thoughts of any Man to call the principles of Religion in Question nor was it here infected with Heresy But Ignorance and Barbarism increased upon it Charlemain did all he could to re-establish good Literature and Ecclesiastical Discipline But the following Princes did not pursue his great designs So that after his Days both Church and State fell into greater Disorders then ever The Faith had been before planted in Saxony Bavaria and all the rest of Germany But to secure it among those rugged Nations Charlemain was oblig'd to back the Preaching of the Gospel with the Sword and Temporal Punishments so that there were many involuntary Conversion which by the unhappines of the Times was not seconded with that care which was necessary to have given Religion sure rooting in a new and unbroken Soil so that one may easily imagin there remained at the bottom a Core of Ignorance and Spiritual Insensibility And this perhaps is one of the Causes why Schism and Heresy have since found so easy an Access and spread themselves all over the North. The Civil Wars which were carryed on from the Reign of Lewis the Debonnaire turn'd all things back again into a state of Ignorance and Confusion even in the soundest parts of the French Empire And to compleat their misery the Normans as yet Pagans ravaged and destroyed it on every side The Huagarian Pagans also overran Italy the Sarasins for a long time hovered upon their Coasts keeping them always upon the Allarm and at last effectually made themselves Masters of Apulia and Sicily besides Spain which they had now Possessed for more then an Age. So that what Remainders had been hitherto left of the Old Roman Manners and Polite Genius were now perfectly worn out The loss of Arts Learning and Civility had been the more Supportable had not the Interests of Religion been involved in their Fate which cannot subsist without both Study and Preaching the one to preserve in it the Soundness of Doctrin the other the purity of its Morals Religion must necessarily fall into Decay unless the Holy Scriptures be diligently Read Taught and Explained to the People unless the Apostolical Traditions be preserved in their Purity and Purged from time to time of those Spurious Additions which the Inventions of Men make without any just Authority All this was a thing hard to be done in the miserable times of which we are now speaking The greatest part of the Layety neither had Books nor indeed could so much as Read And if some of the great Lords had amongst their Rarities some Antient Authors yet they were not able to use them being Written in Latin The Latin was now no longer in common use and in the French and the other Vulgar Languages which were as yet but in their beginning and unformed nothing was Written So that as they could not understand the one they had nothing to Read in the other But the publick Offices of the Church were performed in Latin and the Scriptures were Read to the People in the same Language but seldom Explained The Lords by reason of the little Wars they continually had one against another kept themselves close shut up every one within the Walls of his own Castle so that they seldom came near the Episcopal City especially if they chanced to be as it often hapned at
Idolaters knew not what to make of They demanded of the Christians to tell them the name of their God and called them down-right Atheists because they Worshiped none of the Gods that stood in their Temples had no burning Altars nor Bloody Sacrifices The Sacrificing Priests the Augurs the Aruspices the Diviners of all sorts in a Word all those whose Employment and dependance was upon the Idolatrous worship spared not to foment and blow up the Rage of the People against them To that purpose they made use of pretended Prodigies accusing the Christians as the Causes of all the Publick Calamities that befel them when they were plagued with Famine Pestilence War or the like all was charged upon the score of the Christians by means of whom said they the Wrath of Tertul. Ap. xl Arnob. init the Gods is drawn down upon places where they are suffered to live These violent Prejudices against the Christians made them fly in the Face of their very Vertues and turn them to their reproach The Love they bore to one another was scandalously Interpreted the common Appellation used Tertul. Ap. c. xxxix Petro. amongst themselves of Brother and Sister were wrested to an ill sence as indeed the Heathens had abused those Names in their infamous Amours The large Alms they distributed were Censured to be done with an evil Design to seduce the Poorer sort Acta S S. Hippolyti c. apud Baron an 259. n. xiii of People and strengthen their Faction or as a contrivance of the covetous Bishops to draw into their Churches vast heaps of Treasure to lye at their disposal As for Miracles they said they were only pieces of Sorcery and Magical Impostures And Prud. hymn S. Laurent indeed the World was then over run with cheating Quacks Jugglers and Fortune Tellers who had their several ways of Divination by which they pretended to foretell things to come and by Vertue of their Spells and Charms by the Power of some Barbarous and unintelligible Words and Fantastick Figures and Characters to be able to cure Diseases And whether it were all done by trick or whether they were really assisted by some evil Spirit they imposed upon the Eye sight and did actually perform many strange Feats to the Amazement of the Beholders so that 't was no new thing to hear talk of Miracles nay nor to see them They confounded the true with the false and equally despised all pretenders to them And the Country out of which the Apostles and first Christians came encreased this contempt of them For the greatest part of these kind of Imposters came out of the East The Persecutions themselves were a sufficient Ground of hatred against the Christians People supposed them Criminals because they were every where treated as such and judged of the greatness of their Crime by the severity of their Punishment Thus they were looked upon as an accursed Race of Mortals Tertul. Ap. c. l. Baron an cxxxviii an v. devoted to destruction and marked out for Flames and Gibbets And to add contumely to Injustice they branded them with ill Names And these are those mighty things which rendered the Christians so odious to the ignorant and unthinking Multitude Upon these wild and general Notions Suetonius and Tacitus following common Fame found all they say concerning the Christians The Emperor Claudius saith Suetonius Judaeos impulsore Chresto assiduè tumultuantes Româ expulit banished the Jews from Rome who at the Instigation of Chrestus were always making disturbances as if Jesus Christ had been then living and the Head of a party among the Jews The same Author reckons Suet. Ner. n. 16. Affecti suppliciis Christiani genus Hominum Superstitionn novae maleficae among the good Actions of Nero his having caused the Christians to be brought to Punishment A Sect saith he of a new and dangerous Superstition Tacitus speaking of Nero's having fired Rome only to divert himself with the sight saith that he charged it upon those who were commonly Tac. xv annal quos per stagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabet called Christians a sort of People who were generally hated for their Practices After which he adds They took their Name from a certain Person called Christ who in the reign of Tiberius Caesar was put to Death by Pontius Pilate But this Pernicious Superstition Repressaque in praesens exitiabilis Superstitio c. after having suffered some little check brake forth a new and spread it self not only throughout all Judea where it took Birth but also to Rome its self the place where every thing that is black and infamous Quo omnia undique atrociā pudenda confluun◠celebranturque seems to Center and Rendesvouse First there were some seized who confessed and upon their discovery vast numbers were Condemned not so much upon the account of the Fire as being a Sacrifice to the common Odium He treats them afterward as a Mischievous sort of People and such as well deserved the most Exemplary Punishments Even the Men of Learning and Ingenuity among them that would Vouchsafe to enter into any examination of the matter were not without their aversions against the Christians Those persons of Learning were either Greeks or Romans who used to dispise other Nations under the notion of Barbarians and above all People the Jews a Nation that had for a long time made but a Despicable Appearance in the World and stood particularly Branded for a People of a ridiculous Superstition and sottish Credulity This may a Jew believe not I saith Horace Credat Judaeus Apella non ego Hor. i. Sat v. speaking of a Prodigy When therefore they were told that there were some Jews who adored as the Son of God a Person that had been publickly put to Death upon the Cross and that the grand Controversy between them and the other Jews was whether this Person was Act. xxv 19. yet Living after his Death and whether he were the true King of the Jews one may readily imagin how Ridiculous these Disputes would appear to the Heathens They saw that those of this new Act. xxviii 22. Sect were hated and Persecuted by all the other Jews so that it often proved an occasion of great Commotions among them and therefore they concluded that these were a worse sort of Jews than all the rest They further Objected that those of this new Religion used neither arguments nor Eloquence to convince Mens Understanding but barely bad them Believe what was told them without disputing it pretending Miracles for all they said That the Greatest part of them were poor ignorant Souls that never looked into any Books but the Writings of the Jews That they set up for Teachers and Instructers but 't was only of People Simple and Ignorant Orig. Com. Cels. like themselves as Women and little People finding them more forward to receive their Doctrine then Persons of Sence and
press and intrude upon the Bishop himself both out of respect to his Person and for fear of being troublesom So that the Deacons led a very busy Active Life It was necessary for them to walk much about the Town and sometimes they were obliged to take longer Journies and Travail abroad and for that reason they had neither Cloaks nor any Const. Apost ii c. lvii of the larger sort of Garments worn by the Priests but only Tuniques and Dalmaticks to be always more at liberty for Action and Motion HOSPITALITY was commonly XXIII Their Hospitality used even amongst the Heathens themselves Among the Greeks and Romans their Inns and Publick-Houses of Entertainments were rarely frequented by Persons of any Fashion or Quality In every Town where their Concerns might lead Vide Thomassin de Tesser Hospital them they took care to make themselves some particular Friend in whose Family they might be entertained during their Abode in that Place repaying their Friend who entertained them the like Kindness at their own Houses if his occasions ever brought him that way This usage grew to Prescription in Families It was the principal cement of Friendship and Correspondence between the Cities of Greece and Italy and afterward spread over the whole Roman Empire Nay so sacred was this Priviledge of Entertainment that they made it a part of their Religion Jupiter said they Presided over the Affair both the Persons entertained and the Table at which they Eate were counted Sacred 'T is no wonder then that the Christians should be so forward in Exercising Hospitality who lookd upon themselves as Friends and Brothers to one another and who knew that Jesus Christ had recommended Hospitality as one of the Mat. xxv 35. most Meritorious Performances If a Sranger discovered to them that he made Profession of the Orthodox Faith and lived in the Communion of the Church they received him with open Arms. He that should have shut his Doors against such an One would have been thought to have shut out Jesus Christ himself But first they Expected that he should make himself fully known To that purpose those that Travailed took with them Letters from their Bishop And V. Baron An. 142. n. 7. V. Prior. de Lit. Canon these Letters had certain Marks known only to Christians among themselves These Letters gave an account of the Quality and Condition of the Bearer whether he was a Catholick whether after having been an Heretick or Excommunicate he was again Reconciled whether a Catechumen or a Penitent whether in Holy Orders and in what Degree of Orders For the Clergy never Travailed without Dimissory Letters from their Bishops They had also their Recommendatory Letters to Distinguish Persons of Merit as Confessors or Doctors or those who stood in need of any particular Assistance The first Act of Hospitality was to wash the Feet of their Guests Instances of which we meet with often in Scripture And this was but a necessary Manners of the Israelites in English Pag. 77. 1 Tim. v. 10. Refreshment considering what sort of Shoes they anciently Wore And therefore St. Paul joyns the Lodging of Strangers and the washing of their Feet together If the Guest was in full Communion with the Church they joyned in Prayer and gave him all the respect of the House As to Pray before them to sit uppermost at Table to Instruct the Family They counted themselves Happy in having his Company and looked upon their Meat as in some sort Sanctifyed by his taking part with them The Clergy were every where Honoured proportionably to the Station they held in the Church If a Bishop Traveled he was in all places where he passed invited to perform the Office and to Preach among Const Ap. ii c. 58. them shewing thereby the Unity of the Priest-hood and of the Church There have been some Saints to whom their Hospitality in entertaining the Clergy or such others as came to preach the Gospel proved the occasion of their Martyrdom as Martyr xxii Jun. id 11. Decem. the Famous St. Alban in England and St. Gentian at Amiens The Christians were Hospitable even toward the Infidels themselves Thus they Executed with a great Forwardness of Affection the orders of their Prince obliging them to Lodge his Soldiers Officers or others Travailing upon the Service of the State and to furnish them Vie de St. Pacomre c. iv with Provisions St. Pacomus having Listed himself very Young into the Roman Army he and the Party to which he belonged were Embarqued on Ship board and Landed at a certain little City were he was amazed to see with what Civilities the Inhabitants received them Treating them not like Soldiers but as if they had been their Old Friends and Acquaintance And upon inquiry who they were he was told they were a People of a particular Religion called Christians From that time he informed himself of their Doctrine and this was the Occasion of his Conversion THE Christians took great care to visit XXIV Their Care of the Sick and Burial of the Dead Mat. xxv 36. Dionys. Alex ap Euseb 7. Hist c. 22. the Sick an Office of Charity so much Recommended in the Gospel The City of Alexandria being afflicted with a great Mortality under the Emperor Valerian The Christians readily took that opportunity of shewing their Charity even towards their Persecutors They so freely offered themselves to assist the Sick under their Extremities that many both of the Clergy and Laicks Dyed themselves of the common Distemper and were honoured as Martyrs The Priests visited such Christians as were Sick to Comfort them to Pray by them and Administer to them the Sacraments In such Cases the Viaticum was given only under the Species of Bread and in case of Necessity might be carryed to them by a Laick as appears by the History of Old Serapion Besides the unction of the Consecrated Euseb vi Hist. xliv Jam. 5. 14. Oil administred by the authority of St. James Sick Persons were often recovered by the Application of another Oil called the Oleum Benedictum or Blessed Oil which was Indifferently applyed either to the Faithful or Infidels either by V. Baron an lxiii n. 16. Priests or Laicks according as they had received the gift of Miracles some times they made use of the Oil of the Lamps for this purpose which were kept Burning before the Tombs of the Martyrs The Heathen having no hopes after this Life ended looked upon Death either purely as an Evil which deprived them of the Enjoyments of this World or as Adeone me delirare censes ut ista credam Cic. Tus. Quest. l. i. n. vi Nec Pueri credunt Juven an Aunihilation that Delivere them from all the Sufferings of it There were scarce any among them that gave any Credit to the Fabulous Tales of the Poets concerning the Punishments and Rewards of another Life So that as for Dying Persons their Business
Princes Magistrates and the secular Authority They were never heard complaning against the Government nor ever spake contemptuously of the Civil Power They gave them all the honour and obedience they could on this side Idolatry they paid their Tributes not only without resisting but without repining and rather then defraud them of their Rights if they had not otherwise to answer they made it up out of the labour of their Hands So far were they from raising Sedition Tertul. Apol. c. xxxv xxxvi xxxvil or Rebellions that in all the many Conspiracies which were formed against the Emperors one after another for the space of three hundred years no Christian was ever found to have had an Hand in any of them tho' the Emperors were never so bad and the Persecutors never so cruel The Christians were the only Persons who did not make it their business to get rid of Nero Domitian Commodus Caracalla and so many other Tyrants Opprest and Harrassed as they were with all sorts of injuries and groaning under the most unheard of Cruelties Yet it never entered into their Thoughts to resist the Powers or to take up Arms in their own Defence though they were numerous enough to have made up a greater Body of Men than any of the Nations could that made War against the Romans Nay more than that of so many Christian Soldiers with which the Roman Armies were filled none ever made use of the Sword they had in their Hands but to Execute the Orders of their Prince or their Commanders and we read of entire Legions as that of St. Mauritius that without the lest resistance suffered themselves to be cut to pieces rather than to fail of doing their Duty either to God or Caesar Scarce could they perswade themselves so much as to open their Mouths in their own Defence and Publish some answers to those horrid Calumnies most wrongfully laid to their Charge For near the Orig. Cont. Cels init space of an Age they were content to suffer with silence after the Example of their Master who answered nothing to his Accusers but without resistance submitted himself to the unrighteous Judge v. 1 Pet. ii 21. They were content to be justifyed by their works and let their Actions plead their Cause 'T was not till the Emperor Adrian that they began to Write some Apologies but those in so respectful a manner so Solid and so Grave as made it v. Euseb iv Hist iii. xxv plainly appear that it was only Zeal for the Truth made them take Pen in Hand This invincible Patience at last surmounted all opposition and forced the Powers of this World to submit to the Power of the Gospel Even under the Persecutions the number of Christians was grown Prodigiously great We are saith Tertullian but of Yesterday and Apol. c. xxxvii yet the World is filled with us your Cities your Houses your Garrisons your Villages your Colonies your very Camps your Tribes your Pallaces your Senate your Courts of Justice And indeed there were Christians of all Degrees and some of the first Martyrol 18. Apr. x. c. 19 Ma. xix Aug. xiii Sept. viii Oct. Martyrol Martii xii xxvi Mai. xvii xix Jun. xx Jul. Quality We see in the Martyrology Senators Prefects Proconsuls Tribunes Quaestors and even Consuls themselves we find Christians in the Court and among the Domesticks and principal Officers of the Emperors as under Nero Trajan Alexander Decius Valerian Diocletian The Court of Diocletian served also iii. Sept. v. Oct. xviii Euseb vi Hist xxviii Act. S. Sebast S. Susan sometimes for a safe retreat to the most Zealous Confessors of Rome The Pope St. Gaius and St. Gabinius the Father of St. Susanna were his own Nephews and St. Serena his Empress was a Martyr The People affected with these vertues of the Christians and with the many Miracles wrought among them began at length to do them Justice loudly declaring that great was the God of the Christians Acta S. Bonif an 305 Martyrol Ja. iii. Feb. xvi xvii xxvii Mar. ix xxvii 30. Mai. 31. Jun. 30 Jul. 7. Aug. 21. Sept. 20 25. Oct. 10. 19. Nov. 26. Dec. 3. and that the Christians were Innocent Persons It sometimes happened that as they were Tormenting the Martyrs the common People themselves whom this sight had drawn together took part with the Christians on their own accord and Pelted the Magistrate with Stones off this Tribunal and made him fly the Court. The Clerks of the Court the Goalers the Soldiers the Executioners were many times all on a suddain Converted openly calling out that they were Christians too and offering themselves to the same Punishments Even Comaedians themselves as they were in Derision Martyrol 25. Aug. 15 Sept. Baron an 303. n. 118 acting upon the Stage the sacred My steries have been Converted on the spot and made Illustrious Martyrs Hence proceeded the extream violence of the last Persecution They saw the whole World turning Christian And this last Persecution also as all the former had done served only to spread it farther and give it the deeper Rooting So that all the World bare a favourable Aspect toward Religion when Constantine declared himself the Protector of it Part III. I AM now come to the third part of my Work where I am to represent the XXVII The Church out of Persecution Behaviour of the Christians when the Church came to be in a state of Peace and Liberty For three hundred years they had been longing and sighing after these happy Days of serving God without any lett or hindrance But experience as sad as it was taught them that Persecution was more for the advantage of Religion than Liberty Not but that the same Manners before described continued yet a long time after So that I have nothing to do here but to observe those differences which the free exercise of Religion forthwith produced Though they had always used great The Examination and Preparation for Baptism care in Examining such as demanded Baptism yet there was now required a far greater Circumspection when there was no longer any danger to become a Christian For Worldly Interest and diverse other bad Motives might make Men desirous of taking upon them that Name Therefore every one that presented himself v. Methodedos Pere c. iii. ix to Baptism was in the first place taken into strict Examination and obliged to give an account of the causes of his Conversion of his Condition in the World whether he was a Slave or a Freeman of his Behaviour and of his past Life They who lived in any unlawful Const Ap. viii c. 32. S. Aug. xi de serm dom in mont Calling or in a customary way of Sinning were not admitted till they had actually renounced that course of Life Thus they rejected all common Women and those that made a Trade of Prostituting their Bodies Actors upon the Stage Gladiators Racers in the Circus
those whose Employment it was to Dance or Sing in Publick in a Word all retainers to the Theatre all who had any part in or were much addicted to the publick Shews all Jugglers Enchanters and Diviners of what sort soever all dealers in Charms or Spells used either by way of Cure or Preservative all that exercised any sort of Heathenish Superstitions none of these sort of People were received into the Church till they had first quitted their evil Practices nor were their bare words taken for it till they had given substantial Proofs of the sincerity of their Conversion and that for some considerable time When a Person was judged duly qualified The Catechumens to become a Christian he was made a Catechumen which was done by the Imposition of Hands either of the Bishop himself or of some other Priest by him appointed to that Office who at the same time signed him with the sign of the Cross and Prayed over him That God would grant him the Grace to benefit by the Instructions should be given him and to behave himself so as to be become fit to receive Holy Baptism He continued two or three years in this State of a Catechumen which is a kind of Probationership He was present at the Publick Sermons of the Church to which even the Infidels were admitted But besides the publick Preaching there was an Order of Catechists whose proper business it was to inspect the Catechumens and instruct them in the first Rudiments of Faith without entering into deeper Mysteries which these Novices were not yet judged able to bear The time allowed for this institution of them was longer or shorter according to the Proficiency of the Catechumen Nor did they regard only his understanding in the Doctrinals of Religion but marked whether he mended his Manners and they let him continue in this State till they saw he was perfectly become a new Man Hence it came to pass that many deferred their Baptism till they were at the point of Death For they never gave it but upon Desire tho' they often exhorted People to ask it They who desired Baptism and were thought qualified at the beginning of Lent gave in their Names to be entred in the Roll of Competents or Illuminated for these Competents were distinguished from the other Tertul. de paenit init Hier. advers Jo. Hier. Photizomeni Catechumens They fasted the forty Days as the rest of the Faithful and then they were more fully instructed and the Creed was explained to them and particularly the Mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation They were from time to time brought to the Church to be there publickly examined in the presence of the Faithful to have the Exorcisms made over them and the Prayers of the Church on their behalf This is it they call the Scrutiny which continued to be observ'd v. God Sacram edit Rom. 1680. ord Rom. Missa Fer. iv post Domin iv Quadrag ibi durand for many Ages even toward little Children and some traces of it appear still in the Office of the Church At the end of Lent they were taught the Lord's Prayer and well informed of the Nature of the Sacraments they were then about to receive which were afterward to be explicated to them more at large This order of Instruction plainly appears in the Catechisms of St. Cyril of Jerusalem and in one of Fulgentius's Sermons Fulg. Serm 78. After all these Preparations they were at last solemnly Baptized either on Easter-Eve to put them in mind of rising up with Christ to newness of Life or on the Eve of Pentecost that they might then with the Apostles receive the Gift of the Holy-Ghost For at the same time that they received Baptism they had Confirmation also Baptism was regularly Administred only upon those two Feasts but in case of danger they Baptized at any time The new Baptized of what Age soever they were were called by the name of Children They wore during the whole first Week the white Robe they had received at their Baptism in token of the Innocence wherein they were to walk all the Days of their Life Nor might Tertul. de cor c. iii. they during that time wash themselves in any of the ordinary Baths From that time forward they were freely admitted to all the parts of the Church service Constantine having put an end to the Eus x. Hist c. iii. Persecution one might have seen as Eusebius relates it in all Parts of the World Dedications of Churches and Assemblies of Bishops The dispersed Christians now meet together again The Churches were now in all places frequented more than ever The Psalmody the Celebration of the Mysteries and all the Ceremonies of Religion were performed with greater Solemnity then ever So that this is the proper place to speak of their outward form of Worship Let us begin with the Description of the ancient Churches according to the best Account we can gather both out of the oldest Writings and the oldest Buildings that are left us THE Church was separated as much XXVIII The form of the Churches their ornaments as possibly they could from all profane Buildings and placed at a distance from noise surrouuded on every side with Courts Gardens or Buildings belonging to the Church At the first enterance v. Euseb Hist Eccle. x. c. iv de vita Const lib. iii. cap. 34 35 c. 50 lib. iv c. 58. Propylaeum Paulin. ep xii Natal x. S. Greg. iv Dialog c. xiv you saw the Porch or outer Vestibulam which led you into the Peristilium or square Court surrounded with covered Galleries standing upon Pillars such as the Cloysters of our Monasteries are at this Day Under these Galleries stood the Poor that were permitted to Beg at the Door of the Church and in the middle of the Court were several Fountains for them to wash their Hands and Faces at before Prayers in the room of these Fountains succeeded afterward the Holy-Water Pots At the farther end of this Court was a double Porch and through it there was a passage by three Doors into the Hall or Basilique which was the Body of the Church I call it Double because there was one without and anothere within which the Greeks called the Narthex Near the Basilique on the inside were generally two Buildings the Baptistery at the Entry and at the other end the Sacristry or Treasury called also Cellae the Secretarium or Diaconium Along the sides of the Church were often placed Exhedrae little Chambers or Cells for the convenience of them that had a mind to retire and meditate or Pray by themselves So that they were in effect so many little Chappels The Basilique or Church was Parted into three Divisions proportionable to its Largeness by two rows of Pillars supporting the Galleries on each side and the Middle between these Galleries was the Nave as we see it in all Old Churches Toward the
the House of God or the House of the Lord they rarely made use of the name of Temple and never within the Compas of my reading of Delubrum or Fanum The names of Particular Churches were often taken from their Founders as at Rome the Titulus Pastoris the Basilica of Liberius or Sixtus which is now St. Mary the great or from the Ancient Name of the House as Basilica Laterana Afterwards they came also to make use of Churches built by the Heathens when they found them fit for the use of Religion So in Rome they Converted the Pantheon the Temple of Minerva of Fortuna Virilis with some others into Christian Churches The Churches were not only large and Beautiful as to the make of them but also looked after with great care and always kept Neat and Clean. St. Jerome Epist de fun Nepot gives a special Commendation of Nepotian the Priest for the care he took of keeping his Church in good order The Walls dry and free from Smut and Mould the Pavements rubbed the Sacristy clean the Vessels shining the Door-keeper always upon his Office This was the busines of the inferior Officers under what Name soever they went as Door-keepers Mansionaries Camerarii Sacristans and Cubiculari Aeditui there was a great number of these Officers in the larger Churches We may see Pontific Rom. V. Baron an lviii n. 102. yet in the form of Ordination what was the proper charge of the Ostiaries They were at the Regular Hours to give notice for Prayers and consequently it belonged to them to Ring the Bells when once the use of Bells was brought into the Church which was about the seventh Age. It was their business to open the Church Doors at the usual time and to stand at them upon their Duty to keep Infidels or Excommunicated Persons from Entring They kept the Keys and took care that nothing was lost We find in Dial. i. c. v. iii. c. xxiv Paul Nat. iii. vi the Dialogues of St. Gregory that the Mansionaries had the charge of the Lamps 'T was these Inferior Officers that Dres't up the Church against the more solemn Festivals either with Silk Tapesteries or other rich Hangings or only with Boughs and Flowers In a Word they were to do every thing that was necessary to keep the Holy Place fit for making Impressions of Reverence and Piety upon those who approached it All these Functions appeared too Considerable to be permitted to pure Laicks So that 't was thought necessary to Establish these new Orders of Minor Clerks on purpose to ease the Deacons and to take off some part of their Charge THOUGH t' is true the Christian XXIX Devotion assisted by Sense Religion is altogether Inward and Spiritual yet Christians are Men as well as others and therefore not above the power of Sence and Imagination Nay we may say that the greatest part of Man-kind scarce Act or Live upon any other Principle How few apply themselves to Operations purely Intellectual and they that do so find their thoughts easyly Diverted from Spiritual Objects Devotion therefore must be assisted by the Impressions of Sense Were we Angels we might Pray in all places alike in the hurry of the Roads in the Crowd of the Streets in the Noise of the Guard-Chamber in the Roaring and Riots of a Tavern over the Stenches of a Common-Shore Why then do we shun these places of Distraction and when we would be Devout seek after Silence and retiredness but only as a Remedy against the Impotence of Sense and Imagination 'T is not God that hath need of Temples and Oratories but We. He is equally present in all Places and always equally ready to hear us everywhere but we are not always in a frame of Spirit fit to Speak to him So that 't is a needless and useless peice of Work to Consecrate particular places to his Service unless they be also put into a Condition proper to assist our Devotion Let us Suppose for Example that which we see too often in these later Times a Church so ill Scituated that it Ecchoes with the Noises of an Adjacent Street or a Neighbouring Market and so nastily kept that one can scarce sit down or kneel in it for Dirt suppose it thron'd with such a Herd of People promiscuously crowded together that they who attend upon Prayer are every Moment justled and trampled upon by others pushing on their way through them and continually interrupted with Children's Crying or Playing Loud Beggars Bawling about their Ears Add to this that you have nothing before your Eyes but disagreable Objects the Walls covered over with a filthy Smut and Mouldiness the Pictures disfigur'd with Dust and Cobwebbs and placed in an ill Light the statues of a deformed Make or half of them broken off and the other Ornaments in as ill a condition In fine to omit nothing offensive to sense for Incense an horrid fume of stinking Vapours and for Musick a multitude of untuned Voices jumbled together in Croaking Sounds It will be much easyer for a Man to Pray in an open Field or in a lone uninhabited House then in such a Church as this On the contrary let a Man go into a Church well built beautifully adorned and neatly Kept where all things are still and quiet the People well placed and the Clergy performing the Office in a regular manner and with a becoming Reverence and Humility he will find himself insensibly Engaged to attend the Service he is upon with a composedness of Thought and be able to Pray with the Heart at the same 1 Cor. xiv 14. time he speaks with his Lips Of this the Bishops of the First Ages were very sensible Those Holy Persons were either Greeks or Romans many of them great Philosophers all of them trainep up in the nicest observance of all the Rules of Decency They knew that the order Grandeur and agreeableness of exteriour Objects have a natural Efficacy in them of exciting in the mind Noble pure and well regulated Thoughts and that the Affections follow those Thoughts But that 't is next to impossible to keep the Soul Intent upon that which is good while the Body is uneasy or the Imagination disobliged They thought Devotion a matter of that Importance that it required all the assistance which could handsomly be given it and therefore took care to have the publick Services of the Church especially that of the Sacrifice Celebrated with all possible Majesty and the People assisting at it accommodated with all imaginable Conveniencies that so they might be brought on to take delight in the House of Prayer and to approach it with Reverence And they were at the same time sufficiently Cautions also to keep out of the Holy Places all the Extravagances of a Worldly Pomp all the appearances of a wanton Vanity or whatsoever might have a tendency to Effeminate the mind or strike the Senses with dangerous Impressions 'T was not their design to
appear as occasion might require either Terrible or Pleasant and to hearken with Patience to the matter before him He was a perfect Master of his Passion obliging humane and tender to a Degree of Compassion Such was Theodosius the younger tho' born into an Empire in the Luxurious East and in a very corrupt Age. The Emperor Marcian who after his great services and long experience succeeded him in the Throne discovered the same Piety and the same zeal for Religion but joined with greater Force and Capacity There needs no other proof of his Worth than the choice St. Pulcheria made of him who Married him only to let him into a Partnership with her in the Empire but upon Condition of keeping her Vow of Virginity WHILE the Princes lived at this rate XXXVIII The Manners of the Clergy one may easily imagin how eminently holy the Lives of the Bishops and their Clergy were Yet in the outward Manner of their living the Liberty of the Church produced V. Thom. Disc p. ii l. i. c. 20 c. some change which may deserve our Consideration 'T was now they began to wear some Exteriour Badges of their profession Though to speak the Truth the difference of Habit was scarce perceivable till after the Reign of the Barbarous Princes under whom the Clergy still kept to the Habit of the Romans as they did to their Laws and Language Many embraced the way of Living in common as being the more perfect Life and taken from the first Church of Jerusalem These as far as possibly they could contrive it Lodged all in the same House and eat in the same Hall At least they held nothing in Propriety subsisting only on what the Church supplied them with so that they made one large Family of which the Bishop was the Father Such were the Clergy under St. Eusebius Vercellensis under St. Martin and St. Austin and these were called Canonical Clerks or Canons V. Thom. Disc p. i. l. i. c. 56. p. ii l. i. c. 46. p. iii. l. c. 28. 51. by way of distinction from those who did not live up so strictly to the Letter of the Canons whose service the Church nevertheless accepted of They who were not thus embodied lived at least two or three of them together The Priests who were confin'd to Churches in the Country had with them some young Clerks whom they directed in their Studies whose Manners they formed and whom they kept always by them as Witnesses of their own Conversation Such were those young Readers who suffered Martyrdom in Africa by the Martyrol Jul. iii. Vandals The Bishop had also some Priest or Deacon who never stired from him but lay always in the same Chamber with him And this was he whom the Greeks called the Syncellus which afterwards became an high Dignity The Pope St. Gregory had none but Clerks or Monks in his Palace and this Custom is still observ'd in the Court of Rome where the Domestick Officers of the Pope are all in Holy Orders But whether the Ecclesiasticks lived in Common or separate they were not allow'd to have Women lodging in the same Houses with them Among the Accusations against Paulus Samosatenus this was Conc. Antioch ii an 270. Euseb vii Hist c. 10. one that he kept in the House with him two young handsome Women whom he carried about with him where ever he went And that he also permitted his Priests and Deacons to entertain that sort of Women whom they called Subintroductae Subintroductae Agae pttae This was an abuse grown common when the Church was unpersecuted against which there are extant many Treatises of the Fathers and Regulations of the Councils It was first Introduced upon the pretence of Charity For these Persons who lived in this manner with the Clerks were Virgins Consecrated to God or such others that made a particular profession of Devotion to whom the Clergy pretended to be instead of Fathers or Brothers managing their Affairs and doing for them those services which they could not decently do themselves especially in places where Women rarely appeared in Publick And these devout Women on their side performed for their Brothers all those Domestick Offices which were consistent with the Honour of their Profession For notwithstanding their Inhabiting together they pretended nevertheless to In eos qui tenent subintr keep their Vow of Continence and St. Chrysostom encountring this abuse supposes that they effectually did so He accuses them only of being pleased in seeing and discoursing with each other That the Pleasure of Conversation was more affecting between Persons of different Sex that by this means they were carried on to Scandal and Indecency and rashly exposed themselves to the danger of a Crime To rectify this disorder the unmarried V. Thom. p. i. l. i. c. 49. n. ix V. Mend. in Conc. Elib c. 27. Conc. Nic. cap. iii. Sev. Sulp. in vita S. Martin Hier. on ep ad Nepot Clerks were absolutely forbidden all habitation with Women that were Strangers that is to say all that were not very nearly Related to them which the Council of Nice restrained to Sisters Mothers and Aunts And besides the point of Cohabitation it was not thought convenient that Ecclesiasticks should have much Conversation with Women though under the pretence of Piety or that they should receive from them their little presents of Habits Ornaments Fruits or other such like Refreshments serving rather for Delight than use which had any appearance of Voluptuousness and Decency But upon the main the Sanctity of the Ecclesiasticks was as yet very great and though there were always among them Persons who had their weakness and their Passions the generality of them led Lives extreamly Virtuous and Exemplary The World likewise did them Justice and they were much respected Though the Bishops made no great figure in the World as to Temporal Authority and though they lived in a plain way as private Persons without any thing of Worldly Pomp or outside shew of Grandeur yet they were highly honoured not only by the People but also by the Magistrates and even by the Princes themselves I have before taken notice of the Honours which Constantine paid to the Fathers Assembled in Council at Nice The Emperor Maximus made St. Martin with one of his Priests eat at the same Table with him and the Empress his Wife served them with her own Hands As the Custom of the Romans then was to give to all Persons in place different Titles as of * Illustrious Glorious Renowned most Eminent Illustris Gloriosus spectabilis V. Panâ—ir in Not. Imp. Clarissimus which were stated Appellations according to the Rank and Dignity of the Persons to whom they were apply'd so they gave to the Bishops that of Holy or blessed to which they added that of Pious Religious belov'd of God and such like These Titles were so Appropriated to Bishops that they were not omitted even in the
Court Solliciting the favour of the Prince to support their Party For the Hereticks omitted none of these Practises One might have seen the Monks transported with a mistaken Zeal leaving their Solitudes flocking to the Cities raising Seditions and committing unheard of Insolencies These disorders Reigned pincipally in the East where the Spirits of Men being generally of a more hot and inflexible Temper their Passions presently took fire and carried them to the highest Excesses In the mean time this mightily sunk in the eyes of the World the respect due to Persons Consecrated to Religion and consequently the honour to Religion it self The outward appearance of vertue in the Heathens was another Stumbling-block to the Weak For some there were that led lives Morally good Were true to their Word Just in their Dealing abhorred Fraud and Avarice in a Word Aug. in Io. tract xlv observed all the Laws and Rules of civil Society Pretending that it was sufficient for a Man to Live up to the light of Nature and follow the Law of right Reason without troubling themselves with those disputes which divided the Christians As if the Christians did not profess to follow the sovereign Reason that is the Word Incarnate These wise-Men of this World looked upon Faith as an instance of weakness a prejudice of the Understanding and reckoned Mortification a rigorous chastity forbearing of Spectacles and Profane Diversions as a piece of Superstition Now though Christianity was the Religion of the Prince yet the number of Pagans was still so great that there was no hindering V. Aug. Contra. advers leg proph of them from Writing and Speaking and Dogmatising publickly This freedom was a remainder of the Antient Pretensions of the Philosophers of which the Hereticks also well knew how to make their advantage All that the Emperors could do in these first times was Cod. de Pagan to shut up the Temples prohibit Sacrifices and the other publick ceremonies of Idolatrous Worship Nor could that be done without great Murmurings of the Pagans We know what Efforts the Senate made under Valentinian the Younger Ambros. ad Valentin de relat Symmach Epist xxxi to have the Altar of Victory Restored Some times they proceeded even to open Violence against the Christians who publickly opposed their Superstitions And Martyrol i. Jan. xvii Mart. xiv Aug. therefore we meet with some Martyrs even under the most Christian Emperors The Emperors themselves retained some Formalities of Paganism which in the Baron an 312. bottom were no more than empty Titles As the Name and Habit of the Pontifex Maximus or High Priest which gave them a great Authority over all the Magistrates So also they had the Title of Divinity Numen domus divina Saâ—rum aerarium Sacr patrim c. continued to them and every thing appertaining to it As their Palace their Treasure their Demesnes their Letters their Purple to all which was commonly added the Epithet of Sacred and Divine This Stile was necessary to keep up the Veneration of the People nor did any of the most Holy Christian Bishops ever scruple the use of it In the mean time the Pagans as to the generallity of them grew every Day more and more Corrupt All that hath been said before of the Vices that Reigned in the World when the Gospel made its first appearance was still the same and excepting some few of extraordinaty Force and Elevation and the Philosophers I just mentioned there was neither among the Greeks nor the Romans any remainder of Probity which could come up to a Counter-Ballance Thus matters stood when the Empire sunk in the West and though it continued longer in the East yet it was only till it met with the like violent Shock There was neither Discipline in their Armies nor Authority in their Commanders nor dispatch in their Councils nor Conduct in their management nor Vigor in their Youth nor Prudence in the Aged nor Love for their Country nor any concern for the Common-good every one minded himself only his own Pleasures and private Interests and basely either Neglected or Betrayed the Publick The V. Amm. Maroell lib. 14. lib. 28. Romans Effeminated by Sloth and Luxury defended themselves against the Barbarians by the help of Barbarians themselves whom they hired for pay to serve in their Armies They were Drowned in Pleasures and Delights and valued themselves upon a false Gallantry which had nothing solid at the bottom so that the measures of their Iniquities and Abominations being filled up God in his righteous Judgment executed upon them that exemplary punishment foretold by St. John Rome Apoc. 14. 18. was often taken and Sacked by the Barbarians the Blood of so many Martyrs with which she had made her self Drunk was avenged and the Empire of the West fell a Prey into the Hands of the People of the North who divided it into a set of new Kingdoms The Christians living among a People so perverse and so extreamly corrupt I V. Salvian de gubern Dei lib. vi vii mean these later Romans it was difficult to keep their Vertue from declining especially being no longer Strangers among the Infidels as in the times of Persecution having nothing now to guard against but their Friendship and Caresses 'T is no wonder therefore that we find the Fathers of the Fourth Age upbraiding Christians with the grossest Vices St. Austin dissembles August de Catech. c. v. vii 17. 25. not the Matter but plainly lets the Heathens disposed to turn Christians know before hand how great Sinners they were like to meet with even among the Christians themselves that so they might be the less surprized at them and consequently the less Scandal'd Among the Herd of them saith he that fill our material Churches you will find some Riotous some Covetous some Fraudulent Persons you will see there some Gamesters Adulterers Debauchees Play-haunters others who apply themselves to Diabolical remedies Enchanters Astrologers Diviners of all sorts And yet all these pass for Christians He frankly confesses to the Manichees that Aug. de Mor. Eccl. c. 34. there were even among the professors of the true Religion some Persons Sottishly Superstitions others so addicted to their vicious Passions that they never so much as thought of their Vows made to God He often speaks to the same purpose in many of his tracts against the Donatists where he clearly proves to them That the Tares must continue together with the Wheat Aug. in ps 99. c. 12 c till the time of Harvest that is the Day of Judgment And elsewhere he censures the Injustice of them who approve or condemn all Christians and all Monks in gegeneral for the good or evil of some particular V. Chrysost in Matth. hom 61. Idem de compunct Idem ad fidel patr Persons We find the like instances of the corruption of Christians in St. Chrysostom and the other Fathers of these times to what
purpose then may it be objected served the publick Pennances and Excommunications To purge the Church of a Aug. Enchirid c. lxxx great many Vices though not of all To the imposing of Pennance it was necessarily required that the Offender should desire it or at least that he should voluntarily submit to it so that he was obliged to acknowledge his Offence either by a free Confession of it himself or by acquiesing in the Accusation of others Excommunication was for those who would not accept of Pennance though they were convict either by their own Confession or by legal Proofs or by notoriety of Fact And yet after all the Prudent and Charitable Bishops did not hastily proceed to this last extremity They often admonished the Convicted Offender and put him in mind of the desperateness of his Condition upon persisting in Impenitence they earnestly exhorted him to get out of that dangerous State they spared neither Threats nor Intreaties to overcome the hardness of his Heart they lamented over him before God and obliged the Congregation to Pray for him they waited in expectation a long time imitating the Patience and long Suffering of Const Aâ— ii cap. 41. the Father of Mercies in a word 't was not till they had tried all the Methods of Charity that they proceeded to this sad Remedy and that with the grief of a Parent who to save the Life of his Son is himself forced with his own Hand to cut off his Arm. But as for those whose Crimes were private and concealed either known only to God or impossible to be proved there was no remedy against them They could not deny them entrance into the Church nor participiation of the Sacraments if they were so Sacrilegiously impious as to approach the holy Mysteries In former times the Persecutions were sufficient Trials to seperate the Chaff from the Wheat But when they ceased Hypocrisy was carried on to the last breath of Men. In the mean time the Church was a great sufferer by these lukewarm and corrupt Christians their evil Discourses and evil Examples were a scandal to Religion and their loose Conduct had a pernicious effect especially upon their own Families They did but ill instruct their Children and yet brought them to Baptism And this defect of Family Education was of great Consequence in these first Ages where we cannot find that there was any Catechism publickly appointed for the Instruction of Christian Children THE Ravages of the Barbarians who XLV The Incursions of the Barbarians and their manners overturned the Roman Empire had as pernicious an influence upon the Manners of the Church as the Corruption of the later Romans The Gospel which is the highest Reason rejects every vicious disposition as being inconsistent with it Neither the affectedly Ignorant the Knavish the Savage nor the Slothful can be good Christians Barbarity and Cruelty are as incompatible with true Religion as Luxury and Effeminacy Wars and Hostilities are as contrary to Piety as they are to Justice and all good Order So that Religion suffered deeply under those horrid Confusions Hier. in Iscap v. in fi al. Idem epist. de fun Nepotiani in fi ad Gerontiam ad Agenechiam brought upon the World by the Savage Nations of the North who like a Flood breaking in upon the Roman Empire over run it all St. Jerome and the other Fathers who lived in those times have left us a lamentable Description of them A Barba-Enemy destroying all before him their Towns taken by Storm and their Countries lying at the Mercy of the rude Soldiery 'T is easy to imagin with what distraction all Mens minds were filled what would become of their Lives and Fortunes of themselves and their families how to secure their Persons from Captivity and their Wives and Daughters from Violation These were pressing Considerations and violent Temptations to them to neglect their Spiritual concerns A Man must have been endowed with a very Heroick Resolution to maintain the Constancy of his Mind in the midst of the horrible Slaughters the dismal desolations and all the other terrible Ravages of a Brutish Conqueror We have still extant the Letters of St Basil and the more ancient ones of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus where we may see into what grievous Crimes the Christians were betrayed by the Incursions of the Barbarians into Cappadocia and the Pennances thereunpo enjoyned them When the Vandals wasted Africa that which most sensibly affected St. Austin was as Possidius relates it the hazards and loss of Souls by it He saw saith that Author the Churches for saken of their Priests and Ministers the sacred Virgins and the other Religious scattered abroad in the wide World some sinking under their Torments others put to the Sword others led into Captivity where having lost the honour of their Chastity the Integrity of their Conscience and the Orthodoxy their Faith they remained Slaves to their Brutal and unmerciful Enemies He saw the sacred Hymns and Praises of God given over in the Churches and the very Buildings themselves in many places levell'd with the ground That the Sacrifices and Sacraments were no longer sought after and they that did desire them could not easily meet with any capable of Administring them That the Bishops and Clergy whom God had graciously preserved from falling into the Hands of the Enemies or gave them the means of an escape after they had been taken were spoild of all and reduced to the last degree of Beggery without any ones being able to relieve them according to their Necessities By this Instance one may imagin how it was with them in the other great Provinces in Spain Gaul and V. Conc. i. Bracar 411. Illyrium What means were there left under these Confusions either for instructing the People or breeding up Priests and Preachers How could the Bishops visit their Flocks or meet in Councils to fill up the vacant Sees and maintain the regularity of Discipline The Church hath good reason in all her Prayers to beg of God the blessing of Peace and Tranquillity without which the Publick exercise of Religion must needs fall to the Ground 'T is true the Barbarians were converted The Francs turned Christians the Goths and the Lombards of Arians became good Catholicks but still they remained Barbarians I call Barbarism here that disposition of Mind by which Men govern themselves not by Reason but by Passion or by Custom We have remarkable instances of the Power of Custom in the Iroques and the other People of America whom we call Savages We have scarce ever heard of any Nation less given to Women or less Subject to the Passion of Anger they are very Patient great admirers of Justice and Gratitude Liberal and Hospitable But to this very Day it hath been almost impossible to make Christians of them except those who have been brought up among the French and from their Infancy familiarized to our Customs not that they want Reason or
Understanding in those things they are bred to but they are incapable of receiving new Impressions They can form to themselves no notion of one God the Creator of the Universe and Governour over all Nations They cannot apprehend the reason why there should be but one only Religion in the whole World they cannot be affected with the hopes of a life to come nor comprehend what we mean when we tell them of an happiness purely Spiritual and much less do they understand us when we declare to them the more sublime Mysteries of Religion They will patiently hear what he have to say without contradicting us but when we have said all we can one may plainly perceive they are nothing moved at it If we put them upon Baptism 't is an ordinary thing with them to desire it if they find it will be for their Interest or if they can but get some little Toy by it but as soon as they have gained their ends they think no more of their Vows they return to their own People follow their old trade of eating the Flesh of Men again and torturing their Enemies to Death There are other Barbarians absolutely stupid as the Negroes and Cafres in whom we find no Sentiments of any Religion at all such dull heavy Souls that nothing but what is sensible and Palpable can enter into their understanding all these poor Creatures must first be made Men before they can be made Christians I will not say that the Franks and other People who Conquered the Romans were Barbarous to this degree but it is certain that they had nothing of Learning among them nor any use of Letters that they apply'd themselves never to Arts nor Agriculture that they lived by Blood and Plunder and were so fierce and Savage in their Natures that the Romans were even scared at the very sight of such horrid Figures We see a great deal of Inconstancy and Inequality in their Conduct which seems to be the proper Character of Barbarians For the principal effect of reason is Constancy and Consistency in a Man's Designs and Actions 't is not to act like Men to be given up to diversity of Passions as objects shall present themselves It must be owned there appears much Irregularity and Self-contradiction viz french in the Lives of Our first Christian Kings Clovis and his Sons after him discover on the one side much respect and Zeal for Religion but on the other they fell into many notorious Acts of Injustice and Cruelty The good King Gontram Mar. Rom. 28 Mart. whom the Church hath placed in the number of her Saints amongst many works of Piety was guilty of gross Faults and Dagobert that famous Founder of Monasteries led a very vicious Life not but that there were even in those Days Bishops of an Apostolick Sanctity and Vigour but they chose the lesser evil and shew'd a better inclination for Christian Princes though weak and imperfect than for Pagans and Persecutors of the Church One sign that they did not easily confide in the Barbarian Converts is That for the space Two hundred Years we scarce meet with any Clergy that were not of the Romans as appears by their Names We find at Conc. Tolet. iii. an 589. cap. xi V. Gregor Pastor iii. admon 31. Isidor sent 16. the same time great complaints against the too great easiness of some Priests in admitting People to Penance more than once which seems to have taken its beginning from the Levity and Inconstancy of the Barbarians THESE two Nations the Romans I XLVI The mixture of the Romans and the Barbarians mean and the Barbarians incorporated by degrees but as in the mixture of two different Colours each one loses its property and there ariseth a third which rubs out the former so the Barbarians were softned and Cultivated by their Commerce with the Romans but the Romans themselves became more gross and ignorant by Conversing with the Barbarians so that in the sixth Age we may sensibly perceive a vast change in the Manners of the West The Historians Poets and other profane Authors were now but little regarded by them that they might have more leifure to apply themselves only to Religion which yet may receive great service from these Foreign Studies by supplying us with Critical Learning and the knowledge of Antiquity 'T was for want of these helps that they were too ready to receive such Supposititious Writings as were imposed upon the World under the specious Names of ancient Ecclesiastical Authors as also that they became too credulous in the beleiving Miracles It was a thing so certain that the Apostles and their Disciples had wrought many Miracles and that many true ones were daily performed too at the Tombs of the Martyrs that they were not now so curious in enquiring into them as to distinguish the true from the false The more surprizing Relations of this nature any History contained the more taking it was Their Ignorance in Philosophy and the little knowledge they had of Nature made them take all strange Appearances for Prodigies and interpret them as the supernatural Sings of God's Wrath. They believed vita Lud. Pii there was something in Astrology and dreaded Eclipses and Comets as dismal Presages But what they wanted in knowledge and fineness of Parts was largely made V. Thomass Discp ii l. i c. 16. p. iii. l. i. c. 20. amends for by their Piety and solid Vertues All the Discipline which I have before described in the Third Part continued to the Tenth Age. Christians even to the Princes and Kings themselves were never more constant in the Psalmody and all other exercises of Religion than in those times I am now speaking of never more regular in observing the Fasts and Solemnising the Festivals of the Church Nothing is more famous in History than the Chappel of Charlemain as he was for the most part travailing he caused to he carried along with him Reliques sacred Ornaments and all other things necessary for the performance of the divine Offices with a numerous train of Clergy made up of selected Persons In his Travailling Chappel the service was performed with as much magnificence as in any Cathedral Church His example was followed by the Princes that succeeded him and herein as in every thing else these Princes were imitated by the several great Lords who built their Fortunes upon the Ruin of this Family During all these times there were Prelates of a very exemplary Life constant in Prayer and Zealous for the Conversion of Souls witness those that planted the Faith in Gallia Belgica Germany and the other remote Climates of the North. The Bishops increased daily in their Authority Besides the dignity of their Office and the Sanctity of their Lives their capacity for business and their tender Affection for the People doubly recommended them during the incursion of the Barbarians they often interposed and put a stop to the fury of the Conquerors to save
their Cities from Plunder at the peril of their own Lives Thus Attila was diverted from entring Rome by Pope St. Leo and from Troys by St. Lupus from Orleans by St. Martyr 23 Mai. 14. Dec. Agnan but St. Desiderius of Langres and St. Nicasius of Reims lost their Lives for their Flocks having their Throats cut by the Vandals When these Barbarian Kings turned Christians the Bishops made part of their Councils and were the most trusty of their Ministers They did what they could to recommend Gentleness and Clemency to them often interceding for Criminals and making use of several methods to this purpose 'T was for this end they were so very careful to have the rights of Sanctuary maintained a Privilege which at first the Veneration of Martyrs and afterwards of some illustrious Saints had procured to the places of their Sepulchre as in France to that of St. Martin Hence also 't is plain came in the Custom of putting out Peoples Eyes who ought to have suffered Death they thought to put them out of a capacity of doing more mischief in the World and yet give them time to Repent but sometimes they shut them up in Monasteries The Bishops also made use of the credit they had with their Princes to restrain them from Acts of Injustice and Oppresison to procure the Relief of the Poor and the common good To these ends and purposes they frankly employed the Riches of the Church He that reads what V. Anastas good Works the Popes have done from the time of St. Gregory to Charlemain both in repairing the Ruins of Rome and Reedifying not only the Churches and Hospitals there but likewise the Streets and Aquaeducts as also preserving all Italy from the Violence of the Lombards and the Avarice of the Greeks He that reads the Lives of St. Alnulphus St. Eligius St Audoenus St. Ligarius and the other Prelates who had a great hand in the Management of the publick Affairs in those Days He may see that Christianity is so far from interfering with the Interests of the State that it is indeed the surest foundation of true Politie as being the best means of Uniting Men together and making them serviceable to each other in Society This great Reputation of the Bishops and Abbots insensibly drew them in to share in the Temporal Power They were Lords and had the same priviledges with Lay-Peers but still with the same Incumbrances As to furnish out Soldiers for the Service of the State and often to lead them in Person The different Nations were in time sufficiently intermixed to make the Clergy either of Barbarians or Romans But an intire alteration in their Behavior was much more difficult 'T was very hard to restrain them from Hunting and the exercise of Arms after their Ordination especially when by the orders of their Prince they were obliged to appear in the Field Nor indeed can it be denyed but that those Temporal Seigneuries annexed to Spiritual Dignities were a great cause of the decay of Discipline IN the East they never had any of XLVII The Manners of the Christians in the East from the fifth Age. these Temporalties But there were other causes there which produced as bad effects The great Heresys which took their Rise and Course in those parts had set the Wits of many too busily on Work and shaken the Foundation of their Faith Nestorius on the one side and Eutiches or rather Dioscorus on the other had vast numbers of followers Their disputes were endless and from disputing they often fell into Quarrels and Seditions The Clergy and Monks who were the most Zealous brake forth into the greatest Heats and when these last above all others espoused the Quarrel so far as to quit their Solitudes and flock to the Citys to maintain the Cause of God as they thought there were no methods too Lawless or Violent for them T is well known what bloody Tragedies were Acted in Aegypt and Syria by the opposers of the Council of Chalcedon The Emperors endeavouring by their secular authority to remedy the Evil did only encrease it For instead of applying themselves to see the Decisions of the Church put in execution by Chastising and Suppressing the Obstinate and Seditious by force they engaged themselves in the Controversy and to end the Dispute made use of dangerous Accommodations determining the Point by their Imperial Edicts And at length encouraged by the servile compliances of the Bishops they undertook the regulation of the Church Discipline that is to say they ruined it For there was now no other rule left but the Emperor's Will and Pleasure Though the Roman Empire in the East was yet in Being yet they were no longer Romans save only in Name nor Greeks but in Language 'T was a meer Hotch Potch of all sorts of Barbarians Thracians Illyrians Isaurians Armenians Persians Scythians Sarmatians Bulgarians and Russians So that in all History we scarce meet with a People more corrupt then these later Greeks They had the Vices of the Antients but nothing of their Wit and Ingenuity or of their Arts and Sciences And yet they were all Christians and very careful to keep up the outward shew the pomp and formalities of Religion When the Mahometans had made themselves Masters of the East the Christians of those parts could not avoid keeping great Commerce with them Great numbers of Greeks in Aegypt and Syria liv'd under their Subjection For the Conquest of the Musulmans as the followers of Mahomet call themselves established their false Religion without abolishing the exercise of the Christian in the places where they found it Their Religion was too absurd to be received by them who had ever been enlightned with the true Faith since it taught Men to Believe in a Man that pretended himself to be sent from God upon his own bare Word without any Prophecy foretelling his coming without any Miracle to prove his Mission or Reason to Support his Doctrine That which got him followers was his Addressiing himself to the Arabians a sort of Barbarians as Ignorant as himself the happy success of his Arms and fairly dividing the Spoils with them The Christians had him in Detestation and were a long time subject to the Mahometans before they could so much as think of being in the least reconciled to their Religion But at last they came to it and at the end of Two hundred Years the Empire of the Musulmans being now in its full Glory under Califs their Religion began to appear less frightful to the Christians who were now grown miserably Ignorant and had their Spirits broken by a long Servitude The Original of Mohometism was now grown Old enough to be concealed and set off with the Embelishments of a vast many fabulous Stories The Pompous Gallimafrys of the Alcoran where the Name of God appearing in every page enough to impose upon the Ignorant It every where Inculcates the Unity of God and the Abhorrence of Idolatry It
were always doubted and disputed even by the Philosophers themselves 'T is true these principles were but ill practiced and though none called the truth of them into Question yet few pursued them to their necessary Consequences so as to lead their Lives in conformity to them But the Morals of Christianity failed not to produce some good effect even upon those that were no good Christians It prevented a world of mischief it softned the most Barbarious People and V. Euseb i. Prae. Evan. c. iii c. made them more tractable and Humane If they did not avoid all Crimes yet many of them repented at least and did Penance or if they did not do that yet in their own Consciences they condemned and disapproved of them In a Word Christianity in all places where it prevailed gave a general Tincture of Humanity Modesly and Decency of Behaviour not to be met with any where else In these times of which I am now speaking when the Face of the Church appeared so disfigured in general yet there were great Doctors and great Saints of all Conditions in all parts of the West in France the Monastick discipline began to raise up its head by the Foundation of the famous Monastery of Cluny whose first Abbots St. Odon and St. Majolus are renowned both for their Life and Doctrine In Italy St. Romualdus founded the Monastery of Camaldoli with many others and had many eminent Disciples We see in the same times many holy Bishops of an extraordinary Zeal for Religion a St. Dunstan in England a St. Vdalric in Germany a St. Adelbert in Bohemia the Apostle of the Sclavi and a Martyr We see St. Boniface also a Martyr in Russia St. Bruno in Prussia St. Gerard a noble Venetian Bishop and Martyr in Hungary and many others who by their Preachings their Holiness and their Miracles continued down the Tradition of sound Doctrine and Ecclesiastical discipline In the same Age we have amongst the Laity many Saints even of the greatest Lords as St. Gerald Count of Aurillac St. Stephen King of Hungary and St. Emeric his Son the Emperor St. Henry King Robert In these Saints particularly those of the Nations newly Converted as St. Henry and St. Stephen we may see what dispositions towards Vertue were found in those Nations whom the Romans called Barbarians They were naturally great observers of common Equity generously Plain and Open-hearted Chast Despisers of Pleasure and sensual satisfaction lovers of Justice Hospitality and Alms-giving When these Serious Sincere and Couragious People had once made trial of the Christian Religion they Embraced it heartily They never sought after Niceties in the Interpretation of it nor were they staggered at any of the difficulties it contained 'T is true their Conduct was not always so consistent and uniform as that of the ancient Greeks and Romans but then they were greater Strangers to Hypocrisy 'T was by the special Care and Authority of these Holy Persons that the Publick Peace began to be re-established by making all the Lords swear to the Truce Glab li. v. c. i. an 1041. of God so they called the Cessation of all acts of Hostility from Wednesday Night to Munday Morning in every Week and all that time the Clergy Monks Pilgrims and Labourers in Husbandry were to be unmolested This Truce was established Cap. i. extr de trev pa. in many Councils under the pain of Excommunication such force had Religion upon the Minds of Men when the very Foundations of civil Society were almost overthrown In these times also we meet with frequent mention of Excommunication against those who should strike a Clergy-man this was a thing never thought of in the First Ages Their own Dignity was then thought a sufficient Protection to them but they were now every Day exposed to the utmost Violences THE Normans had destroyed a great L. The restablishment of Piety and discipline number of Churches and others were suffered to run to Ruin upon the false Opinion they had That the end of the World would be precisely in the Thousandth Year of our Lord but when they Glab lib. saw that the World still stood after that fatal Year they began every where to build Churches again and that after the most magnificent manner they were capable of in that Age always more stately than any dwelling Houses not only of private Persons but of the chiefest Nobility They annexed to them large Endowments though for the most part they were no more than the Restitution of Tythes and the other Gods usurp'd in the late disorders Great care was every where used for the recovery of Relicks and great cost was spent in adorning them with the most precious Jewels that could be got as we may still see in the Treasuries of the most ancient Churches They applyed themselves also at the same time to the restoring of the use of singing in Churches and the other Solemnities of divine Service 'T was in the Eleventh Century that Guido Monk of Arezzo in Tuscany invented the Notes and introduced that Method which is the Foundation of all modern Musick The Religious Princes I have before mentioned both by their Liberalities and by their Examples favoured all these good designs Part of the Responses which are now sung were composed by King Robert and he Helgand vit Rob. thought it an honour to perform the Office of a Chanter publickly in the Church I find no Age in which the long Psalmody was more in Vogue as one may see by the Rule of the Carthusians and the other Orders Baron ad Martyrol ii Nov. of those times The Monks of Cluny brought into common use the Office for the Dead and soon after commenced the little Office of the Virgin Many had devotion enough to repeat over every Day the Petr. Dam. li. 6. ep 32. whole Book of Psalms As the number of their Offices increased so did also their Masses and Altars Domestick Chappels were exceeding numerous every Lord would have one to himself within the Walls of his own Castle that so he might not in the War-time be without the Mass and other Services of the Church but there was a mixture of Vanity in the Case they loved to have Chaplians in their Family and disdained the publick Churches where they were undistinguished from the common People In the mean time it was impossible that this multitude of Offices Celebrated in so many different places should appear with the same advantage as it would have done had there been but one Form or Office performed and directed by the Bishop assisted by all his Clergy as it was the manner of the Ages foregoing Besides the Reason of a great many of the Ceremonies was now forgotten and yet the Forms were still kept up by Tradition and the notion of the ancient Politeness was quite lost so that from these times we see not the same care taken as was formerly to erect their Churches at a convenient
to imagine that the way to Heaven is become more easy to Us than it was to them of Old that we are more happy than our Fore-fathers or that the Bishops and Popes of these last Ages thought themselves wiser than their Predecessors We need only read the Constitutions and Canons which have Authorised the several Relaxations to see that the Church never did it without Regret Many Deviations came in only by common usage In the mean time the Church hath taken special care in such cases to retain certain Observances in remembrance of the true Practice of Antiquity Thus the Office for the Noon or Evening Service said on Fast-days before Dinner All the Formularies of Ordinations and other publick Acts are as it were so many repeated Protestations to salve the authority of the ancient Rules and bar the pretence of Prescription against them There are other Abuses which the Church hath always condemned as those absurd Shows which they had the boldness to bring even into the Churches themselves and which were forbidden in the Council of Basil And as the profane Conc. Basil Sess xii c. xi V. Syn. Vigorn an 1240. c. iv Jollity on the Feasts of the Saints the remains of which wee see in that of St. Martin's Day of the Kings and on those of their Patron Saints in the Villages or Country Wakes And as the Debauches of the Carnival which had no other beginning than the Reluctance People had about the keeping of Lent resolving to take their Fill of Pleasure before they began their Fast Little did the Apostles and their Disciples imagine that this Holy Preparation for the Passover should one Day have proved an occasion of Dissolution and Licentiousness The Saints and all true Christians have always openly declared against these Abuses We know with what Vigour St. Charles Borromeus suppressed them and how Zealously he Laboured to bring back again into the Church the Spirit of Antiquity even to the lesser matters of Religion The Council of Trent and those who were employed to see it put into Execution in the Provinces aimed at no other end than This. And so many Reformations that have been made in the Religious Orders since the last Age were only in order to reduce them to their Primitive Constitution St. Teresa could Vi. S. Terâ— c. 27. fin not endure that under the pretence of Discretion and for the avoiding of Scandal there should be Restraints lay'd upon the fervour of those who affected to imitate the Saints of the first Age. She complains that these Discretions have spoiled the World and maintains that in her Age which is very near ours the Vertues of the Primitive Church were not Impracticable Lessons 'T was upon this occasion she wrote the Life of St. Peter of Alcantaâ—a she herself being an eye Witness to it Proceeding upon so good Authorities LVI The use of this Work I thought I might do some service to the World in Representing the Manners of the Ancients which ought to be the Patterns now of all good Christians I have said nothing but what is well known to Persons of Learning and taken out of Books with which they are familiarly acquainted And they will see that much more might have been added to the same Purpose There are many things here not commonly known to every good Christian and such things too as are fit for their Edification They will see that the Religion of a Christian consists not altogether as too many imagine in some formal performances To say over every Morning and Night some short Prayers to assist on Sundays at the Publick Service to distinguish the Holy Time of Lent only by abstaining from some certain sort of Dyets and to dispence with it upon trivial Occasions to approach the Sacraments so Seldom and with so small affection that they turn Solemn Festivals into Melancholy Days And as to the common Course of their Lives to be as much addicted to the Interests and Pleasures of this World as Pagans themselves could be These are not the Christians I have been Describing I hope also that the Description I have here given of the Holy Manners of those that were really Christians may make some Impressions upon such Persons who have no more sense of things than to confound the true Religion with those false ones which the Error of Ignorant or Craft of disigning Men have introduced Let a Man but consider that vast change of Manners which the Gospel hath wrought in all Nations and the Distinguishing Characters there have always been between true Christians and Infidels and he will see that the Christian Religion stands upon a surer Bottom then he thought for He will be forced to believe that it was at first established by the Power of Miracles for there can be nothing more Incredible than that such a Change should be wrought without Miracles These Miracles made so strong an Impression that it was not till very late any one did so much as think of calling them into Question To speak no more than what we know 't is scarce above Two hundred Years since this Libertinism was introduced by some Italians who tho' Men of Wit were very Ignorant of Religion and disgusted with these Abuses then they were charmed with the Beauty of the Ancient Greek and Latin Authors with the Government of these People and their way of Living And so much the more because the maxims of those Heathens better agreed with the Corruption of human Nature and the general Practices of Mankind In short these Modern Italians relished nothing else This mischief was farther encreased by the new Heresies that were broached in these last Ages The Disputes upon the very Fundamental Principles of Religion shock't the Faith of many who yet upon divers Temporal Motives continued in the outward profession of the Catholick Religion And amongst the Hereticks themselves were great numbers who being no longer restrained by Authority have driven the Consequences of their ill principles to extremity and are come to that pass as to look upon Religion it self as no more than a piece of State-Policy This unhappy notion got ground and easily spread it self Young Persons hearing their Parents perhaps or those whom they looked upon as Men of Wit making some lewd Jests upon Religion or it may be venturing to say in plain terms that there was nothing in it at the bottom presently took up with that and finding these notions agreeable to their Passions and Desires never troubled their thoughts any farther about inquiring into the Merit of the matter Vanity also came in for its share They thought by this means to distinguish themselves from the ignorant Vulgar and appear more discerning than the honest well meaning People of former Ages besides sloth was another Motive to make them either take matters upon trust or determine at all Adventures rather than to be at the trouble of examining the Truth but let Men say what they will the matters I have