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PART II.

The INTERNAL HISTORY of the CHURCH.

CHAP. I.

Which contains the history of learning and

philosophy.

I. PHILOLOGY, eloquence, poetry, and his- CENT.

IV. PART II.

The state

tory, were the branches of science particularly cultivated at this time, by those among the Greeks and Latins, who were desirous to make a figure in the learned world. But though seve- of learning. ral persons of both nations acquired a certain degree of reputation by their literary pursuits, yet they came all far short of the summit of fame. The best poets of this period, such as Ausonius, appear insipid, harsh, and inelegant, when compared with the sublime bards of the Augustan age. The rhetoricians, departing now from the noble simplicity and majesty of the ancients, instructed the youth in the fallacious art of pompous declamation; and the greatest part of the historical writers were more set upon embellishing their narrations with vain and tawdry ornaments, than upon rendering them interesting by their order, perspicuity, and truth.

Platonic

II. Almost all the philosophers of this age were The proof that sect which we have already distinguished gress of the by the title of Modern Platonics. It is not there- philosophy. fore suprising, that we find the principles of Platonism in all the writings of the Christians. The number, however, of these philosophers was not so considerable in the west as in the eastern countries. Jamblichus of Chalcis explained, in Syria,

Z 4

CENT. Syria, the philosophy of Plato, or rather proIV. pagated his own particular opinions under that PART II. respectable name. He was an obscure and cre

Its fate.

were

dulous man, and his turn of mind was highly superstitious and chimerical, as his writings abundantly testify [b]. His successors Edesius, Maximus, and others, whose follies and puerilities are exposed, at length, by Eunapius. Hypatia, a female philosopher of distinguished merit and learning. Isidorus, Olympiodorus, Synesius, afterwards a Semi-Christian, with others of inferior reputation, were the principal persons concerned in propagating this new modification of Platonism.

III. As the emperor Julian was passionately attached to this sect, (which his writings abundantly prove), he employed every method to increase its authority and lustre; and, for that purpose, engaged in its cause several men of learning and genius, who vied with each other in exalting its merit and excellence [c]. But, after his death, a dreadful storm of persecution arose, under the reign of Valentinian, against the Platonists; many of whom, being accused of magical practices, and other heinous crimes, were capitally convicted. During these commotions, Maximus, the master and favourite of Julian, by whose persuasions this emperor had been en

gaged

[6] Dr. Mosheim speaks here of only one Jamblichus, though there were three persons who bore that name. It is not easy to determine which of them was the author of those works that have reached our times under the name of Jamblichus; but whoever it was, he does not certainly deserve so mean a character as our learned historian here gives him.

[c] See the learned Baron Ezekiel Spanheim's Preface to the works of Julian; and that also which he has prefixed to his French translation of Julian's Caesars, p. 111. and his Annotations to the latter, p. 234; see also Bletterie, Vie de l'Empereur Julien, lib. i. p. 26.

IV. PART II.

gaged to renounce Christianity, and to apply CENT. himself to the study of magic, was put to death with several others [d]. It is probable, indeed, that the friendship and intimacy that had subsisted between the apostate emperor and these pretended sages were greater crimes, in the eye of Valentinian, than either their philosophical system or their magic arts. And hence it happened, that such of the sect as lived at a distance from the court, were not involved in the dangers or calamities of this persecution.

mong the

IV. From the time of Constantine the Great, The state of the Christians applied themselves with more zeal learning a and diligence to the study of philosophy and of Christians. the liberal arts, than they had formerly done. The emperors encouraged this taste for the sciences, and left no means unemployed to excite and maintain a spirit of literary emulation among the professors of Christianity. For this purpose, schools were established in many cities; libraries were also erected, and men of learning and genius were nobly recompensed by the honours and advantages that were attached to the culture of the sciences and arts [e]. All this was indispensibly necessary to the successful execution of the scheme that was laid for abrogating, by degrees, the worship of the gods. For the ancient religion was maintained, and its credit supported by the erudition and talents which distinguished in so many places the sages of paganism. And there was just reason to apprehend, that the truth might suffer, if the Christian youth,

for

[d] Ammian. Marcellin. Historiarum, lib. xxix. cap. i. 556. edit. Valesii. Bletterie, Vie de Julien, p. 30—155. 159. and Vie de Jovien, tom. i. p. 194.

[e] See Godofred. ad codicis Theodos. titulos de professoribus et artibus liberalibus. Franc. Balduinus in Constantino p. 122. Herm. Conringii Dissert. de studiis Romæ et Constantinop. at the end of his Antiquitates Academicæ.

M.

CENT. for want of proper masters and instructors of their IV. own religion, should have recourse, for their education, to the schools of the Pagan philosophers and rhetoricians.

PART II.

Many illi

terate

V. From what has been here said concerning Christians, the state of learning among the Christians we would not have any conclude, that an acquaintance with the sciences was become universal in the church of Christ. For, as yet, there was no law enacted, which excluded the ignorant and illiterate, from ecclesiastical preferments and offices; and it is certain, that the greatest part both of the bishops and presbyters were men entirely destitute of all learning and education. Besides, that savage and illiterate party, who looked upon all sorts of erudition, particularly that of a philosophical kind, as pernicious, and even destructive to true piety and religion, increased both in number and authority. The ascetics, monks, and hermits, augmented the strength of this barbarous faction; and not only the women, but also all who took solemn looks, sordid garments, and a love of solitude, for real piety (and in this number we comprehend the generality of mankind) were vehemently prepossessed in their favour.

CHAP. II.

Concerning the government of the church, and the Christian doctors, during this century.

The form I. of govern

ment in the

CONS

MONSTANTINE the Great made no essential alterations in the form of governChristian ment that took place in the Christian church before his time; he only corrected it in some particulars, and gave it a greater extent. For

church.

though

IV. PART II.

though he permitted the church to remain a CENT. body-politic, distinct from that of the state, as it had formerly been, yet he assumed to himself the supreme power over this sacred body, and the right of modelling and governing it in such a manner, as should be most conducive to the public good. This right he enjoyed without any opposition, as none of the bishops presumed to call his authority in question. The people therefore continued as usual, to choose freely their bishops and their teachers. The bishop governed the church, and managed the Ecclesiastical affairs of the city or district, where he presided in council with the presbyters, and with a due regard to the suffrages of the whole assembly of the people. The provincial bishops assembled in council, deliberated together concerning those matters that related to the interests of the churches of a whole province, as also concerning religious controversies, the forms and rites of divine service, and other things of like moment. To these lesser councils, which were composed of the ecclesiastical deputies of one or more provinces, were afterwards added œcumenical councils, consisting of commissioners from all the churches in the Christian world, and which, consequently represented the church universal. These were established by the authority of the emperor, who assembled the first of these universal councils at Nice. This prince thought it equitable, that questions of superior importance, and such as intimately concerned the interests of Christianity in general, should be examined and decided in assemblies that represented the whole body of the Christian church; and in this it is highly probable, that his judgment was directed by that of the bishops. There were never, indeed, any councils held, which could, with strict propriety, be called universal; those, however, whose laws

and

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