THE SEVENTH CENTURY. ᏢᎪᎡᎢ 1. EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. CONCERNING THE PROSPEROUS EVENTS WHICH HAPPENED TO THE PART I. religion intro duced China. 1. In this century the progress of Christianity CENT. VII. I. IN was mightily accelerated both in the eastern and western hemispheres, and its divine light was dif- The christian fused far and wide through the darkened nations. de inte The nestorians, who dwelt in Syria, Persia, and India, contributed much to its propagation in the east, by the zeal and diligence, the laborious efforts and indefatigable assiduity, with which they preached it to these fierce and barbarous nations, who lived in the remotest borders and deserts of Asia, and among whom, as we learn from authentic records, their ministry was crowned with remarkable success. It was by the labours of this sect, that the light of the gospel first penetrated into the immense empire of China, about the year 637, when Jesuiabas of Gadala was at the head of the nesto. rians, as will appear probable to those who look upon as genuine the famous Chinese monument, which was discovered at Siganfu, by the jesuits during the last century. Some, indeed, look upon • This celebrated monument has been published and explained by several learned writers, particularly by Kircher, in his China Illustrata, p. 53; by Muller, in a treatise published at Berlin in 1672; by Eusebe PART I. CENT. VII. this monument to be a mere forgery of the jesuits, though perhaps without reason; there are, however, other unexceptionable proofs, that the northern parts of China, even before this century, abounded with christians, who for many succeeding ages, were under the inspection of a metropolitan sent them by the Chaldean or Nestorian patriarch.b The English converted. n. The attention and activity of the Greeks were so entirely occupied by their intestine divisions, that they were little solicitous about the progress of Renaudot, in his Relations anciennes des Indes et de la Chine, de deux voyageurs Mahometans, p. 228–271, published at Paris in the year 1718, in 8vo; and by Assemanni Biblioth. Orient. Clement Vatican. tom. iii. pars ii. cap. iv. § 7. p. 538. We were promised a still inore accurate edition of this famous monument by the learned Theoph. Sigifred Bayer, the greatest proficient of this age in Chinese erudition; but his death has blasted our expectations. For my part, I see no reason to doubt of the genuineness of this monument, nor can I understand what advantage could redound to the jesuits from the invention of such a fable. See Liron, Singularites Historiques et Litteraires, tom. ii. p. 500. b See Renaudot, I. c. p. 56, 68, &c. Assemanni Biblioth. &e, cap. ix. p. 522; the learned Bayer, in his preface to his Museum Sinicum, p. 84, assures us, that he has in his hands such proofs of the truth of what is here affirmed, as puts the matter beyond all doubt. See on this subject a very learned dissertation published by M. de Guignes in the xxxth. vol. of the Memoires de Litterature tires des Registres de l'Academie Royale des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres,in which he proves that the christians were settled in China so early as the seventh century. He remarks, indeed, that the nestorians and other christians were for a long time confounded in the Chinese annals with the worshippers of Fo, an Indian idol, whose rights were introduced into China about sixty five years after the birth of Christ; and that this circumstance has deceived De la Craze, Beausobre, and some other learned men, who have raised specious objections against the hypothesis that maintains the early introduction of Christianity into this great empire. A reader properly informed will lend little or no attention to the account given of this matter by Voltaire in the first volume of his Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, &c. A poet, who recounts facts, or denies them, without deigning to produce his authorities, must not expect to meet with the credit that is due to an historian. Christianity. In the west, Augustin laboured to CENT. VII. extend the limits of the church, and to spread the PART I light of the gospel among the Anglo Saxons; and, after his death, other monks were sent from Rome to exert themselves in the same glorious cause. Their efforts were attended with the desired suc. cess, and the efficacy of their labours was manifested in the conversion of the six Anglo Saxon kings, who had hitherto remained under the darkness of the ancient superstitions, to the christian faith, which gained ground by degrees, and was at length embraced universally throughout all Britain. We are not however to imagine, that this universal change in favour of Christianity was wholly due to the discourses of the Roman monks and doctors; for other causes were certainly instrumental in accomplishing this great event. And it is not to be doubted, that the influence which some christian queens, and ladies of high distinction had over their husbands, and the pains they took to convert them to Christianity, as also the severe and rigorous laws that were afterward enacted against idolaters, contributed much to the progress of the gospel. Gauls, the Su landers, the Franks, and the Helvetii. m. Many of the British, Scotch, and Irish eccle- As also the siastics travelled among the Batavian, Belgic, and evi, the FriesGerman nations, with the pious intention of propagating the knowledge of the truth, and of erecting churches and forming religious establishments every where. This was the true reason which induced the Germans, in after times, to found so many convents for the Scotch and Irish, of which some are yet in being. Columban, an Irish monk, seconded by the labours of a few companions, had happily extir • Bedæ Historia Ecclesiast. Gentis Anglor. lib. ii. cap. iii. p. 91, cap. xiv. p. 116, lib. iii. cap. xxi. p. 162, &c. edit. Chifleti. Rapin Thoyras, tom. i. p. 227. i. Wilkins's Concilia Magne Britanniæ, tom. • See the Acta Sanctorum, tom. ii. Febr. p. 362. P. 222. PART I CENT. VIL pated in the preceding century the ancient superstitions in Gaul, and the parts adjacent, where idolatry had taken the deepest root; he also carried the lamp of celestial truth among the Suevi, the Boii, the Franks, and other German nations, and persevered in these pious and useful labours until his death, which happened, A. D. 615. St. Gal, who was one of his companions, preached the gospel to the Helvetii, and the Suevi. St. Kilian set out from Scotland, the place of his nativity, and exercised the ministerial function with such success among the eastern Franks, that vast numbers of them embraced Christianity. Toward the conclusion of this century, the famous Willebrord, by birth an Anglo Saxon, accompanied with eleven of his countrymen, viz. Suidbert, Wigbert, Acca, Wilibald, Unibald, Lebwin, the two Ewalds, Werenfrid, Marcellin, and Adalbert, crossed over into Batavia, which lay opposite to Britain, in order to convert the Frieslanders to the religion of Jesus. From thence, in the year 692, they went into Fosteland, which most writers look upon to have been the same with the isle of Helgoland or Heiligland; but being cruelly treated there by Radbod, king of the Frieslanders, who put Wigbert, one of the company, to death, they departed hence for Cimbria, and the adjacent parts of Denmark. They however returned to Friesland, A. D. 693, and were much more successful than they had formerly been in opposing the ancient superstitions, and propagating the knowledge of the truth. Willebrord f Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ordinis Benedicti, tom. ii. p. 560, tom. iii. p. 72, 339, 500. Adamanni, lib. iii. De S. Columbano, in Canisii Lection. Antiq. tom. i. p. 674, 8 Walafridi Strabonis vit. S. Galli in Mabillon, Actis S. Ord. Benedict. tom. ii. p. 228, Canisii Lection ̧ Antiq. tom i̟, p. 783. b Vita S. Kiliani in Canisii Lection. Antiq. tom. iii. p. 171. Jo. Pet. de Ludewig, Scriptores rerum Wurzburgens. p. 966. I. was ordained by the Roman pontiff, archbishop of CENT. VII. Wilteburg, now Utrecht, and died among the Ba- PART I, tavians in a good old age; while his associates continued to spread the light of the gospel among the Westphalians, and the neighbouring countries. we are to form tles. IV. These voyages, and many others undertaken The judgment in the cause of Christ, carry no doubt a specious of these apesappearance of piety and zeal; but the impartial and attentive inquirer after truth will find it impossible to form the same favourable judgment of them all, or to applaud without distinction the motives that animated these laborious missionaries. That the designs of some of them were truly pious, and their characters without reproach, is unquestionably certain. But it is equally certain, that this was neither the case of them all, nor even of the greatest part of them. Many of them discovered, in the course of their ministry, the most turbulent passions, and dishonoured the glorious cause in which they were engaged, by their arrogance and ambition, their avarice and cruelty. They abused the power which they had received from the Roman pontiffs, of forming religious establishments among the superstitious nations; and instead of gaining souls to Christ, they usurped a despotic dominion over their obsequious proselytes; and exercised a princely authority over the countries where their ministry had been successful. Nor are we to consider as entirely groundless, the suspicions of those who allege that many of the monks, desirous of rule and authority, concealed their vices under the mask of religion, and endured, for a certain time, the austerities of a rigid mortification and abstinence, merely with a view to rise in the church to the episcopal dignity. Alcuini vita Willibrordi in Mabillon. Actis SS. Ord. Benedict. Sec. iii. pars i. p. 603. Jo. Molleri Cimbria Litterata, tom. ii. p. 980. |