of Lobes near Liege (8) wrote exprefly is did alfo (9) Alfric in England, whofe ho-, er ufed to be read publicly in the churches. I aim therein (1) is to prove, that we fpifte the body of Chrift, and drink his blood, true faith we partake of that holy facrae bread and wine cannot by any benediction d into the body and blood of Chrift, they are e body and blood of Chrift, yet not corpofpiritually; with much more to the fame He wrote alfo two epiftles, the one addreffed ifhop of Shirburn, and the other to Wulfftan of York, wherein he afferts the fame doctrin. er he thus (2) explains the doctrin of the The hoft is the body of Chrift, not corout fpiritually. Not the body in which he but the body of which he spake, when he conhe bread and wine the night preceding his and faid of the confecrated bread, This is my d again of the confecrated wine, This is my ich is thed for many for the remiffion of fins.' r he hath thefe (3) memorable words, which of more zeal than knowledge attempted to the manufcript copy, 'Yet this facrifice is his body in which he fuffered for us, nor his ich he poured out for us, but it is fpiritually nade his body and blood; as the manna which rained rom heaven, and the water which flowed from the ock, as Paul the apoftle faith.' The fynods and uncils, which were held in this age by the authority kings and bishops, fhow evidently that the power of e pope had not yet extended over all. Nay there were gs and bishops who oppofed the fupremacy of the pe; and none more than (4) the council of Rheims the year 991, and Gerbert archbishop of Rheims, who clared that if the pope did amifs, he was liable to the cenfures of the church:' and fpeaking of the pope then gning John XV, What,' fays he, do you conceive his man, fitting on a lofty throne, glittering in purple cloathing and in gold, what, I fay, do you conceive im to be? If he is deftitute of charity, and is puffed up by knowlege alone, he is Antichrift fitting in the temple of God, and fhowing himself that he is God.' e was afterwards himself chofen pope under the name Sylvefter II, and poffibly the change of his fituation ight produce a change in his fentiments. Much of the fame complexion with the tenth was the eventh century, equally funk in profligacy, fuperftition, ad ignorance, but yet not without fome fuperior spirits bear teftimony against it. The papal power was in is century carried beyond all bounds by the ambition ad arrogance of the reigning popes, and particularly y the violence and haughtiness of Gregory VII, whose rmer name was Hildebrand, or Hell-brand, as he hath Ften been denominated. But yet there were emperors nd councils, who strenuously opposed the pretenfions nd ufurpations of the fee of Rome; and thefe contests and ftruggles between the popes and emperors about the ght of inveftitures and other articles make a principal art of the hiftory of this age. Our English kings, deoted as they were to the religion, yet would not en (4) Spanhem. ex Baronio ad ann. 2. Num. 1o, &c. et ex Epift. Gererti. Si peccaverit, fubeffe judicio ecefiæ.-Quid hunc, reverendi patres, charitate deftituitur, folaque fcientia inflatur et extollitur, Antichriftus eft in templo Dei fedens, et fe oftendens tanquam fit Deus. Cap. 6. Sect. 3, Dunin hid Chan tirely fubmit to the authority of the bishop of Rome; bút contradicted it in feveral inftances. When Wil liam I. was required by the pope to pay him homage, he made (5) anfwer, To pay homage I have been unwilling, nor am I willing; for neither did I promise it, neither do I find that my predeceffors paid it to your predeceffors.' His fon William Rufus exerted foinewhat of the fame fpirit, and (6) infifted that the pope, without his permiffion, had no manner of jurif diction in England. Early in this century, there (7) appeared at Orleans fome heretics as they were called, who maintained that the confecration of the priest could not change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Chrift, and that it was unprofitable to pray to faints and angels and they were condemned by the council of Orleans in the year 1017. Not long after these (8) appeared other heretics of the fame ftamp in Flanders, who were alfo condemned by the fynod of Arras in the year 1025. They came originally from Italy, where they had been the difciples of Gundulphus; and they are faid to have admitted no fcripture but the gospels and apoftolical writings; to have denied the reality of the body and blood of Chrift in the eucharift; to have attributed no religious worship to the holy confeffors, none to the crois, none to images, nor to temples nor altars; and to have afferted, that there was no purgatory, and that penances after death could not abfolve the deceafed from their fins. Other tenets were afcribed to them, which were really heretical; and perhaps they might hold fome errors, as well as fome truths; or perhaps their adverfaries, as it hath been their ufual artifice, might lay things to their charge merely to blacken and defame them. Not long after thefe (9) arofe the famous Berengarius, a native of Tours, and archdeacon of (5) Fidelitatem facere nolui, neç volo; quia nec ego promifi, nec anteceffores meos antecefforibus tuis id feciffe comperio. Apud Baron. Ann. 1079. Sect. 25. Uffer. de Chriftian. Ecclef. fucceffione et ftatu. Cap. 7. Sect. 9. (6) Eadmer. Hift. Lib. 2. Collier's Ecclef. Hift. B. 4. p. 279. 5 (7) Dupin XI. Siecle. Chap. 13. Fred. Spanhemii Hist. Christian. Sæc. XI. Cap. 10. Sect. 1. (8) Spanhem. ibid. Dupin. ibid. Allix's Remarks upon the ancient church of Piedmont. Chap. 11. (9) Uffer. ibid. Cap. 7. Sect. 24, &c. Dupin. ibid. Chap. 2. Spanhem. ibid, Cap. 8, &c. &c. ́*• Angers, Angers, who more profeffedly wrote against the doctrin of tranfubftantiation: and alfo (1) called the church of Rome a church of malignants, the council of va nity, and the feat of Satan.' It is true that he was compelled by the authority of popes and councils to renounce, abjure, and burn his writings. But his was all a forced, and not in the leaft a voluntary recantation, As often as he recanted, he relapfed again. He re turned like a dog to his vomit, as a (2) contemporary popish writer expreffeth it. He lived and died in the fame fentiments. His herefy was from him called the Berengarian herefy; and his followers were fo numerous, that as (3) old hiftorians relate, he had corrupted almoft all the French, Italians, and English with his depravities. When Gregory VII had, both by letters, and by a council held at Rome in the year 1074, ftrictly forbidden the marriage of the clergy, it raifed (4) great commotions among the ecclefiaftics in Germany; who not only complained of the pope for impofing this yoke, but likewife accufed him of advancing a notion infupportable, and contrary to the words of our Saviour, who faith that all are not able to live in continence, and to the words of the apoftle, who ordereth those who have not the gift of continence to marry. They added that this law, in forcing the ordinary courfe of nature, would be the cause of great disorders; that they would rather renounce the priesthood than marriage; and the pope fhould provide, if he could, angels to govern the church, fince he refufed to be ferved by This was the language of thefe corrupt ecclefiaftics, as (5) Dupin hath called them: but the decree of the pope was no less opposed in France, in Flanders, men. (1) Ecclefiam Romanam, ecclefiam malignantium, concilium vanitatis, et fedem Satanæ vocabat. Gulielm. Reginald. Calvino Turcifm. Lib. 2. Cap. v. Uffer. ibid. Sect. 24. (2) Qui licet eandem hærefin fæ piffime in fynodo abjuravit, ad vomitum tamen fuum canino more non expavit redire. Bertoldus Conftantienfis prefbyter apud Uffer. ibid. Sect. 34 (3) Eodein tempore, Berengarius Turononfis, in hæreticam prolapfus et (4) Dupin. ibid. Chap. 5. Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 7. Sect. 4. (5) C'eft ainfi que ces ecclefiaftiques corrompus parloient. Dupin. ibid. p. 36. in in Italy, and England, than in Germany. A council was held at Winchester in the year 1076, wherein it was (6) decreed indeed, that no canon fhould marry; but the priests in the country, who were already married, were allowed to cohabit with their wives; whereas the pope had enjoined all priefts without diftinction to put away their wives, or to forbear the exercise of their office. Whereupon Mr. Collier hath made this juft reflection; "From hence it appears that the papal fupremacy had not reached its zenith in this century, and that the English bishops did not believe the pa"triarchal power arbitrary and unlimited, but that a "national church had fome referves of liberty, and "might diffent from the conftitutions of the fee of "Rome upon occafion." 66 Europe hitherto was involved in the dark night of popery, with only fome ftars appearing here and there in the horizon; but in the twelfth century there began to be vifible fome ftreaks of the morning light, fome dawnings of a reformation. Here in England, during the reign of Henry II, the famous conftitutions of Clarendon were fworn to and figned both by the clergy and the laity, in recognition of the rights of the crown, particularly forbidding all appeals to Rome without the king's licence, and appointing the trial of criminal clerks before fecular judges: But the best account of this as well as of the other memorable tranfactions of this reign the public expects with fome impatience from one of the moft mafterly and elegant writers of the prefent age, a friend to religion and virtue, a friend to liberty and his country; and the public expectations have been fince fully answered, Fluentius bishop of Florence (7) taught publicly, that Antichrift was born, and come into the world: whereupon pope Pafchal II went to Florence, held a council there in the year 1105, and feverely reprimanded the bishop, and ftrictly forbad him to preach any fuch doctrin. St. Bernard himfelf, devoted as he was (6) Collier's Ecclefiaft. Hift. B. 4. p. 248, 249, Spelmanni Concil. Vol. 2. (7) Platiną in vita Pafchal, II. Spanhemii Hift. Chriftian Sec. XII. and |