human things. And, among the many advan. tages that arise from the study of Ecclesiastical History, it is none of the least, that we shall see therein the origin and occasions of those ridiculous rites, absurd opinions, foolish superstitions, and pernicious errors, with which Christianity is yet disfigured in too many parts of the world. This knowledge will naturally lead us to a view of the truth in its beautiful simplicity, will engage us to love it, and render us zealous in its defence; not to mention the pleasure and satisfaction that we must feel in researches and discoveries of such an interesting kind. that too frequently seduces us to adopt their errors, especially if these persons have been distinguished by eminent degrees of sanctity and virtue. And an attachment to favourite opinions, leads authors sometimes to pervert, or, at least, to modify facts in favour of those who have embraced these opinions, or to the disadvantage of such as have opposed them. These kinds of seduction are so much the more dangerous, as those whom they deceive are, in innumerable cases, insensible of their delusion, and of the false representations of things to which it leads them. It is not necessary to observe the solemn obligations that bind an historian to guard XXI. They, more especially, who are apagainst these three sources of error with the pointed to instruct the youth in the public unimost delicate circumspection, and the most scru-versities, as also such as are set apart for the pulous attention. service of the church, will derive from this study XIX. It is well known nevertheless how far the most useful lessons of wisdom and prudence, ecclesiastical historians, in all ages, have depart-to direct them in the discharge of their respeced from these rules, and from others of equal evidence and importance. For, not to mention those who lay claim to a high rank among the writers of history in consequence of a happy memory, loaded with an ample heap of materials, nor those whose pens are rather guided by sordid views of interest than by a generous love of truth, it is but too evident, how few in number the unprejudiced and impartial historians are, whom neither the influence of the sect to which they belong, nor the venerable and imposing names of antiquity, nor the spirit of the times and the torrent of prevailing opinion, can turn aside from the obstinate pursuit of truth alone. In the present age, more especially, the spirit of the times and the influence of predominant opinions, have gained with many an incredible ascendant. Hence we find frequently in the writings even of learned men, such wretched arguments as these: "Such an opinion is true; therefore it must of necessity have been adopted by the primitive Christians-Christ has commanded us to live in such a manner; therefore it is undoubtedly certain, that the Christians of ancient times lived so.-A certain custom does not take place now; therefore it did not prevail in former times." tive offices. On the one hand, the inconsiderate zeal and temerity of others, and the pernicious consequences with which they have been attended, will teach circumspection; and in the mistakes into which even men of eminent merit and abilities have fallen, they will often see the things they are obliged to avoid, and the sacrifices it will be prudent to make, in order to maintain peace and concord in the church; on the other hand, illustrious examples and salutary measures will hold forth to them a rule of conduct, a lamp to show them the paths they must pursue. It may be further observed, that if we except the arms which scripture and reason furnish against superstition and error, there is nothing that will enable us to combat them with more efficacy than the view of their deplorable effects, as they are represented to us in the history of the church. It would be endless to enumerate all the advantages that result from the study of Ecclesiastical History; experience alone can display these in all their extent; nor shall we mention the benefits that may be derived from it by those who have turned their views to other sciences than that of theology, and its more peculiar utility to such as are engaged in the study of the civil law. All this would lead us too far from our present design. XXII. As the history of the church is External or Internal, so the manner of treating it must be suited to that division. As to the first, when the narration is long, and the thread of the history runs through a great number of ages, it is proper to divide it into certain periods, which will give the reader time to breathe, assist memory, and also introduce a certain method and order into the work. In the following history the usual division into centuries is adopted preferably to all others, because most generally liked; though it be attended with difficulties and inconveniences. XX. If those who apply themselves to the composition of Ecclesiastical History be careful to avoid the sources of error mentioned above, their labours will be eminently useful to mankind, and more especially to those who are called to the important office of instructing others, in the sacred truths and duties of Christianity. The history of the church presents to our view a variety of objects that are every way adapted to confirm our faith. When we contemplate here the discouraging obstacles, united efforts of kingdoms and empires, and the dreadful calamities which Christianity, in its very infancy, was obliged to encounter, and over which it gained an immortal victory, this will be sufficient to XXIII. A considerable part of these inconfortify its true and zealous professors against all veniences will be however removed, if, besides the threats, cavils, and stratagems of profane this smaller division into centuries, we adopt a and impious men. The great and shining ex- larger one, and divide the space of time that amples also, which display their lustre, more or elapsed between the birth of CHRIST and our less, in every period of the Christian history, days into certain grand periods, that are distinmust have an admirable tendency to inflame our guished by signal revolutions or remarkable piety, and to excite, even in the coldest and most events. It is on this account that we have Insensible hearts, the love of God and virtue.judged it expedient to comprehend the following Those amazing revolutions and events that distinguished every age of the church, and often seemed to arise from small beginnings, and causes of little consequence, proclaim, with a solemn and respectable voice, the empire of providence, and also the inconstancy and vanity of History in Four Books, that will take in four The diversity of these objects may be, they are closely connected; and it is the particular business of an ecclesiastical historian, to observe a method that will show this connection in the most conspicuous point of view, and form into one re from the reign of CONSTANTINE to that of CHARLEMAGNE, which produced such a remarkable change in the face of Europe. The Third will contain the History of the Church, from the time of CHARLEMAGNE to the memorable period when LUTHER arose in Germany, to op-gular whole a variety of parts that seem heteropose the tyranny of Rome, and to deliver divine truth from the darkness that covered it. And the Fourth will carry down the same history, from the rise of LUTHER to the present times. XXIV. We have seen above, that the sphere of Ecclesiastical History is extensive, that it comprehends a great variety of objects, and embraces political as well as religious matters, so far as the former are related to the latter, either as causes or effects. But, however great the geneous and discordant. Different writers have followed here different methods, according to the diversity of their views and their peculiar manner of thinking. The order I have observed will be seen above in that part of this Introduction, which treats of the subject-matter of Ecclesiastical History; the mention of it is therefore omitted here, to avoid unnecessary repetitions. AN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. BOOK I. CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH FROM ITS FIRST RISE TO THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. PART I. COMPREHENDING THE EXTERNAL HISTORY CHAPTER I. CONCERNING THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS STATE I. and avarice of the Prætors and Proconsuls, and the ambitious lust of conquest and dominion, which was the predominant passion of the Roman people, together with the rapacious proceedings of the publicans, by whom the taxes of the empire were levied, were the occasions of perpetual tumults and unsupportable grievances. And among the many evils that arose from thence, we justly reckon the formidable armies, that were necessary to support these extortions in the provinces, and the civil wars which freand their haughty conquerors. A GREAT part of the world wasphe, qud the poke gut between the oppressed nations PART I. come subject to the Roman empire, when JESUS CHRIST made his appearance upon earth. The remoter nations, which CENT. I. had submitted to the yoke of this mighty empire, were ruled, either by Roman governors, invested with temporary commissions, or by their own princes and laws, in subordination to the republic, whose sovereignty was to be acknowledged, and from which the conquered kings that were continued in their dominions, derived their borrowed majesty. At the same time the Roman people and their venerable senate, though they had not lost all shadow of liberty, were yet, in reality, reduced to a state of servile submission to Augustus Cæsar, who, by artifice, perfidy, and bloodshed, had proceeded to an enormous degree of power, and united in his own person the pompous titles of Emperor, Sovereign, Pontiff, Censor, Tribune of the people, Proconsul; in a word, all the great offices of the state.' II. The Roman government, considered both with respect to its form and its laws, was certainly mild and equitable. But the injustice 1 See for this purpose the learned work of Augustine Campianus, entitled, De officio et potestate Magistratuum Romanorum et jurisdictione, lib. i. cap. i. p. 3, 4, &c. Geneva, 1725, in quarto. 2 See Moyle's Essay on the Constitution of the Roman Government, in the posthumous works of that author, vol. i. p. 1-48. as also Scip. Maffei Verona illustrata, lib. ii. p. III. It must, at the same time, be acknowledged, that this supreme dominion of one people, or rather of one man over so many kingdoms, was attended with many considerable advantages to mankind in general, and to the propagation and advancement of Christianity in particular. For, by the means of this almost universal empire, many nations, different in their language, and in their manners, were united more intimately together in social intercourse. Hence a passage was opened to the remotest countries, by the communications which the Romans formed between the conquered pro vinces. Hence also the nations, whose manners were savage and barbarous, were civilized by the laws and commerce of the Romans. And by this, in short, the benign influence of letters and philosophy was spread abroad in countries which had lain before under the darkest ignorance. All this contributed, no doubt, in a singular manner, to facilitate the progress of the gospel, and to crown the labours of its first ministers and heralds with success.* 3 See, for a further illustration of this matter, Histoire des grands chemins de l'Empire Romain, par Nicol. Bergier, printed in the year 1728. See also the very learned Everard Otto, De tutela viarum publicarum, Part II. p. 314. 4 Origen, among others, makes particular mention of this, in the second book of his answer to Celsus, p. 79 of the Cambridge edition. 1 IV. The Roman empire, at the birth of Christ, was less agitated by wars and tumults, than it had been for many years before. For though I cannot assent to the opinion of those, who, following the account of Orosius, maintain, that the temple of Janus was then shut, and that wars and discords absolutely ceased throughout the world; yet it is certain, that the period, in which our Saviour descended upon earth, may be justly styled the Pacific Age, if we compare it with the preceding times. And indeed the tranquillity that then reigned, was necessary to enable the ministers of Christ to execute, with success, their sublime commission to the human race. V. The want of ancient records renders it impossible to say any thing satisfactory or certain concerning the state of those nations, who did not receive the Roman yoke: nor indeed is their history essential to our present purpose. It is sufficient to observe, with respect to them, that those who inhabited the eastern regions were strangers to the sweets of liberty, and groaned under the burden of an oppressive yoke. This, their softness and effeminacy, both in point of manners and bodily constitution, contributed to make them support with an unmanly patience; and even the religion they professed rivetted their chains. On the contrary, the northern nations enjoyed, in their frozen dwellings, the blessings of sacred freedom, which their government, their religion, a robust and vigorous frame of body and spirit, derived from the inclemency and severity of their climate, all united to preserve and maintain." VI. All these nations lived in the practice of the most abominable superstitions. For though the notion of one supreme Being was not entirely effaced in the human mind, but showed itself frequently, even through the darkness of the grossest idolatry; yet all nations, except that of the Jews, acknowledged a number of governing powers, whom they called gods; and one or more of which they supposed to preside over each particular province or people. They worshipped these fictitious deities with various rites; they considered them as widely different from each other in sex, and power; in their nature, and also in their respective offices, and they appeased them by a multiplicity of ceremonies and offerings, in order to obtain their protection and favour. So that, however different the degrees of enormity might be, with which this absurd and impious theology appeared in different countries; yet there was no nation, whose sacred rites and whose religious worship did not discover a manifest abuse of reason, and very striking marks of extravagance and folly. VII. Every nation then had its respective gods, over which presided one more excellent than the rest; yet in such a manner that this supreme deity was himself controlled by the rigid empire of the fates, or what the philosophers called Eternal necessity. The gods of the East were different from those of the Gauls, the Germans, and the other northern nations. The Grecian divinities differed widely from those of the Egyptians, who deified plants, ani 1 See Jo. Massoni Templum Jani, Christo nascente, referatum. Roterodami, 1706. 2 Fere itaque imperia (says Seneca) penes eos fuere populos, qui mitiore cælo utuntur: in frigora septemtrionemque vergentibus immansueta ingenia sunt, ut ait poeta, suoque simillima cœlo. Seneca De ira, lib. ii. cap. xvi. tom. L Opp. Edit. Gronovii, In mals, and a great variety of the productions both of nature and art. Each people also had their own particular manner of worshipping and appeasing their respective deities, entirely different from the sacred rites of other countries. process of time, however, the Greeks and Romans grew as ambitious in their religious pretensions, as in their political claims. They maintained, that their gods, though under different names, were the objects of religious worship in all nations, and therefore they gave the names of their deities to those of other countries." This pretension, whether supported by ignorance or other means, introduced inexpressible darkness and perplexity into the history of the ancient superstitions, and has been also the occasion of innumerable errors in the writings of the learned. VIII. One thing indeed, which, at first sight, appears very remarkable, is, that this variety of religions and of gods neither produced wars nor dissensions among the different nations, the Egyptians excepted. Nor is it, perhaps, necessary to except even them, since their wars undertaken for their gods cannot be looked upon, with propriety, as wholly of a religious nature. Each nation suffered its neighbours to follow their own method of worship, to adore their own gods, to enjoy their own rites and ceremonies, and discovered no sort of displeasure at their diversity of sentiments in religious matters. There is, however, little wonderful in this spirit of mutual toleration, when we consider that they all looked upon the world as one great empire, divided into various provinces, over every one of which a certain order of divinities presided; and that, therefore, none could behold with contempt the gods of other nations, or force strangers to pay homage to theirs. The Romans tra Gentes, in the first volume of his works. 3 See the discourses of Athanasius, entitled, Oratio con 4 This fact renders a satisfactory account of the vast number of gods who bore the name of Jupiter, and the multitudes that passed under those of Mercury, Venus, Hercules, Juno, &c. The Greeks, when they found, in other countries, deities, that resembled their own, persuaded the worshippers of these foreign gods, that their deities were the same that were honoured in Greece, and were, indeed, convinced themselves that this was the case. In consequence of this, the Greeks gave Romans in this followed their example. Hence we find the names of their gods to those of other nations, and the the names of Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, &c. fre quently mentioned in the more recent monuments and inscriptions which have been found among the Gauls and tries worshipped no gods under such denominations. I Germans, though the ancient inhabitants of those councannot think that this method of the Greeks and Romans has introduced so much confusion into mythology as Dr. Mosheim here imagines. If indeed there was no resem blance between the Greek and Roman deities, and those of other nations, and if the names of the deities of the former had been given to those of the latter in an arbitrary and undistinguishing manner, the reflection of our historian would be undeniably true. But it has been alleged bability, that the principal deities of all nations resembled by many learned men, and that with a high degree of proeach other extremely in their essential characters; and, if so, their receiving the same names could not introduce much confusion into mythology, since they were probably derived from one common source. If the Thor of the ancient Celts was the same in dignity, character, and attri. butes, with the Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans, where was the impropriety of giving the same name? 5 There are ingenious things to be found upon this head in the Expositio Mensa Isiaca of Pignorius, p. 41. 6 The religious wars of the Egyptians were not undertaken to compel others to adopt their worship, but to avenge the slaughter that was made of their gods, viz. Crocodiles, &c. by the neighbouring nations. They were not offended at their neighbours for serving other divinities, but could not bear that they should put theirs to death. |