CHAPTER II.

CONCERNING THE CALAMITOUS EVENTS THAT HAPPENED TO THE
CHURCH DURING THIS CENTURY.

L. THE christian religion suffered less in this century from the cruelty of its enemies, than from the defection of its friends. Of all the pagan monarchs, under whose government the christians liv. ed, none behaved to them in a hostile manner, nor tormented them with the execution of compulsive edicts or penal laws, except Gormon and Swein, kings of Denmark. Notwithstanding this, their affairs were far from being either in a fixed or flourishing state; nay, their situation was full of uncertainty and peril, both in the eastern and western provinces. The Saracens in Asia and Africa, amidst the intestine divisions under which they groaned, and the calamities that overwhelmed them from different quarters, were extremely assiduous in propagating every where the doctrines of Mahomet, nor were their efforts unsuccessful. Multitudes of christians fell into their snares; and the Turks, a valiant and fierce nation, who inhabited the northern coast of the Caspian sea, received their doctrine. The uniformity of religion did not however produce a solid union of interest between the Turks and Saracens ; on the contrary, their dissensions and quarrels were never more violent, than from the time that Mahomet became their common chief in religious matters. The succours of the former were implored by the Persians, whose country was a prey to the ambitious usurpations of the latter, and these succours were granted with the utmost alacrity and readiness. The Turks accordingly fell upon the Saracens in a furious man. ner, drove them out of the whole extent of the

CENT. X.

PART I.

The progress

and Saracens.

of the Turks

PART I.

CENT. X. Persian territories, and afterward, with incredible rapidity and success, invaded, seized, and plundered the other provinces that belonged to that people, whose desolation, in reality, came on like a whirlwind. Thus the powerful empire of the Saracens, which its enemies had for so many years attempted in vain to overturn, fell at last by the hands of its allies and friends. The Turks accomplished what the Greeks and Romans ineffectually aimed at ; they struck suddenly that dreadful blow which ruined at once the affairs of the Saracens in Persia, and then deprived them, by degrees, of their other dominions; and thus the Ottoman empire, which was still an object of terror to the christians, was established upon the ruins of the Saracen dominion.

'The western

barbarians

christians.

II. In the western provinces the christians had persecute the much to suffer from the hatred and cruelty of those who remained under the darkness of paganism. The Normans, during a great part of this century, committed, in several parts of France, the most barbarous hostilities, and involved the christians, wherever they carried their victorious arms, in numberless calamities. The Samaritans, Sclavonians, Bohemians, and others, who had either conceived an aversion for the gospel, or were sunk in a stupid ignorance of its intrinsic excellence and its immortal blessings, not only endeavoured to extirpate Christianity out of their own territories by the most barbarous efforts of cruelty and violence, but infested the adjacent countries, where it was professed, with fire and sword, and left, wherever they went, the most dreadful marks of their unrelenting fury. The Danes moreover did not cease to molest the christians, until they were subdued by Otho the Great, and thus, from being the enemies, became the friends of the christian

For a more ample account of these revolutions, see the Annales Tur cici of Leunclavius; as also Georgii Elmacini Historia Saracenica, p. 190, 205, 210

PART I

cause. The Hungarians also contributed their CENT. x. part to the sufferings of the church, by their incur. sions into several parts of Germany, which they turned into scenes of desolation and misery; while the fierce Arabs, by their tyranny in Spain, and their depredations in Italy and the neighbouring islands, spread calamity and oppression all around them, of which no doubt the christians, established in these parts had the heaviest portion.

these calami

III. Whoever considers the endless vexations, The effects of persecutions, and calamities, which the christians ties. suffered from the nations that continued in their ancient superstitions, will easily perceive the reason of that fervent and inextinguishable zeal, which christian princes discovered for the conversion of these nations, whose impetuous and savage fury they experienced from time to time. A principle of self preservation, and a prudent regard to their own safety, as well as a pious zeal for the propagation of the gospel, engaged them to put in practice every method that might open the eyes of their barbarous adversaries, from a rational and well grounded hope that the precepts of Christianity would miti gate, by degrees, the ferocity of these nations, and soften their rugged and intractable tempers. Hence it was that christian kings and emperors left no means unemployed to draw these infidels within the pale of the church. For this purpose, they propos ed to their chiefs alliances of marriage, offered them certain districts and territories, auxiliary troops to maintain them against their enemies, upon condition that they would abandon the superstition of their ancestors, which was so proper to nourish their ferocity, and to increase their passion for blood and carnage. These offers were attended with the desired success, as they induced the infidel chiefs not only to lend an ear themselves to the instructions and exhortations of the christian missionaries, but also to oblige their subjects and armies to follow their examples in this respect,

PART II.

INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

CONCERNING THE STATE OF LETTERS AND PHILOSOPHY DURING
THIS CENTURY,

CENT. X. I. PART II. .

letters among

THE deplorable ignorance of this barbarous age, in which the drooping arts were totally neglected, The state of and the sciences seemed to be upon the point of the Greeks, expiring for want of encouragement, is unanimously confessed and lamented by all the writers who have transmitted to us any accounts of this period of time. Nor indeed will this fatal revolution, in the republic of letters, appear astonishing to such as consider on the one hand the terrible vicissitudes, tumults, and wars that turned all things into confusion both in the eastern and western world, and on the other the ignominious stupidity and dissoluteness of those sacred orders who had been appointed as the guardians of truth and learning. Leo, sirnamed the Philosopher, who ascended the imperial throne of the Greeks toward the commencement of this century, was himself an eminent lover of learning, and an auspicious and zealous protector of such as distinguished themselves in the culture of the sciences. This noble and generou's

See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Biblioth. Græc. lib. v. pars ii. cap. v. p. 363,

e

PART 11.

disposition appeared with still the greater lustre in CENT. X. his son Constantine Porphyrogeneta, who not only discovered the greatest ardour for the revival of the arts and sciences in Greece, but also employed the most effectual measures for the accomplishment of this excellent purpose. It was with this view that he spared no expense in drawing to his court, and supporting in his dominions, a variety of learned men, each of whom excelled in some of the different branches of literature, and in causing the most diligent search to be made after the writings of the ancients. With this view, also, he became himself an author, and thus animated by his example, as well as by his protection, men of genius and abilities to enrich the sciences with their learned productions. He employed, moreover, a considerable number of able pens, in making valuable extracts from the commentaries and other compositions of the ancients; which extracts were preserved in certain places for the benefit and satisfaction of the curious; and thus, by various exertions of liberality and zeal, this learned prince restored the arts and sciences to a certain degree of life and vigour. But few of the Greeks followed this great and illustrious example; nor was there

Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. lib. v. pars ii. cap. v. p. 486.

We have yet remaining of Constantine Porphyrogeneta, son of Leo the Philosopher, the following productions;

The Life of the emperor Basilius.

A Treatise upon the Art of Governing, in which he investigates the origin of several nations, treats of their power, their progress, their revolutions, and their decline, and gives a series of their princes and rulers.

A Discourse concerning the manner of forming a Land Army and Naval Force in Order of Battle.

Two Books concerning the eastern and western Provinces. Which may be considered as an account of the state of the empire in the time of this prince.

f All this appears evident from the accounts left upon record by Zonaras, in his Annales, tom. iii. p. 155, edit. Paris.