THE TENTH CENTURY. PART I. EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. CONCERNING THE PROSPEROUS EVENTS WHICH HAPPENED TO THE CENT. x. PART I. The propa gation of the 1. THE deplorable state of Christianity in this century, arising partly from that astonishing ignorance that gave a loose rein both to superstition and immorality, and partly from an unhappy concurrence christian relig of causes of another kind, is unanimously lamented by the various writers, who have transmitted to us the history of these miserable times. Yet amidst all this darkness, some gleams of light were perceived from time to time, and several occurrences happened, which deserve a place in the prosperous annals of the church. The nestorians in Chaldæa extended their spiritual conquests beyond mount Imaus, and introduced the christian religion into Tartary, properly so called, whose inhabitants had hitherto lived in their natural state of ignorance and ferocity, uncivilized and savage. The same successful missionaries spread, by degrees, the knowledge of the gospel among that most power. PART I. CENT. X. ful nation of the Turks, or Tartars, which went by the name of Karit, and bordered on Kathay, or on the northern part of China. The laborious industry of this sect, and their zeal for the propagation of the christian faith, deserve no doubt the highest encomiums; it must however be acknowledged, that the doctrine and worship, which they introduced among these barbarians, were far from being, in all respects, conformable to the precepts of the gospel, or to the true spirit and genius of the christian religion. Prester John. II. The prince of that country, whom the nestorians converted to the christian faith, assumed, if we may give credit to the vulgar tradition, the name of John after his baptism, to which he added the sirname of Presbyter, from a principle of modesty. Hence it was, as some learned men imagine, that the successors of this monarch retained these names until the time of Jenghis Khan, who flourished in the fourteenth century, and were each of them called Prester John. But all this has a very fabu lous air; at least it is advanced without any solid proof; nay, it appears evident, on the contrary, that the famous Prester John, who made so much noise in the world, did not begin to reign in that part of Asia before the conclusion of the eleventh century. It is however certain beyond all contradiction, that the monarchs of the nation called Karit, which makes a large part of the empire of the Mogul, and is by some denominated a province of the Turks, and by others a tribe of the Tartars, embraced Christianity in this century; and that a considerable part of Tartary, or Asiatic Scythia, lived un Jos. Sim. Assemanni Bibliotheca Oriental. Vaticane, tom. lii. pars ii. p. 482. Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientule p. 256. See Assemanni Biblioth. Orientale Vaticanæ, tom. iii. pars ii. p. 282. der the spiritual jurisdiction of bishops, who were CENT. X. sent among them by the nestorian pontiff. PART I. duke of Not verted. con III. If we turn our eyes to the western world, Rollo first we shall find the gospel making its way with more mandy or less rapidity through the most rude and unciv. ilized nations. The famous archpirate Rollo, son of a Norwegian count, being banished from his native land, had, in the preceding century, put himself at the head of a resolute band of Normans, and seized upon one of the maritime provinces of France, from whence he infested the whole country round about with perpetual incursions and depredations. In the year 912, this valiant chief embraced, with his whole army, the christian faith, and that upon the following occasion; Charles the Simple, who wanted both resolution and power to drive this warlike and intrepid invader out of his dominions, was obliged to have recourse to the method of negotiation. He accordingly offered to make over to Rollo a considerable part of his territories, upon condition that the latter would consent to a peace, espouse his daughter Gisela, and embrace Christianity. These terms were accepted by Rollo without the least hesitation; and his army, following the example of their leader, professed a < The late learned Mr. B. Theophilus Sigefred Bayer, in his Preface to the Museum Sinicum, p. 145, informed us of his design to give the world an accurate account of the nestorian churches established in Tartary and China, drawn from soine curious ancient records and monuments, that have not been as yet made public. His work was to have been entitled Historia Ecclesiarum Sinicarum, et Septentrionalis Asiæ; but death prevented the execution of this interesting plan, and also of several others, which this great man had formed, and which would have undoubtedly cast a new light upon the history of the Asiatic christians. Holbergi Historia Danorum Navalis in Scriptis Societat. Scient. Hafniens. pars iii. p. 357. • Other writers more politely represent the offer of Gisela as one of the methods that Charles employed to obtain a peace with Rollo. PART 1. CENT. X. religion of which they were totally ignorant. These Norman pirates, as appears from many authentic records, were absolutely without religion of every kind, and therefore were not restrained, by the power of prejudice, from embracing a religion which presented to them the most advantageous prospects. They knew no distinction between interest and duty, and they estimated truth and virtue only by the profits with which they were attended. It was from this Rollo, who received at his baptism the name of Robert, that the famous line of Norman dukes derived its origin; for the province of Bretagne, and a part of Neustria, which Charles the Simple conveyed to his son in law by a solemn grant, were, from this time, known by the name of Normandy, which they derived from their new possessors. The conver sion of the Po IV. The christian religion was introduced into lish nation. Poland by the zealous efforts of female piety. Dambrowka, daughter of Bolislaus, duke of Bohemia, persuaded by the force of repeated exhortations, her husband Micislaus, duke of Poland, to abandon paganism, in consequence of which he embraced the gospel, A. D. 965. The account of this agreeable event was no sooner brought to Rome, than the pontiff, John XIII. sent into Poland Ægidius, bishop of Tusculum, attended with a numerous train of ecclesiastics, in order to second the pious efforts of the duke and dutchess, who desired, with impatience, the conversion of their subjects. But the exhortations and endeavours of these devout missionaries, who were unacquainted with the language of the people they came to instruct, would have been entirely without effect, had they not been accompanied with the edicts and f Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, tom. i. p. 296. Daniel, Hist. de France, tom. ii. p. 587. It was Neustria properly, and not Bretagne, that received the name of Normandy, from the Normans who chose Rollo for their chief. |