from whom they collected this account, would have informed them alfo of better things*. Patto, it appears, had great fuccefs among the infidels, but was grieved to fee Chriftian profeffors difgracing the faith by their vices. He faithfully rebuked them; and for his honeft zeal in preaching against the fins of nominal Chriftians, was mur- A.D. dered about the year 815. 815. Tanes, who had fucceeded Patto in the Scotch abbey, after a time left his fituation, and followed his countryman into Germany, not fo much with a defire of martyrdom, fay the Centuriators, as of obtaining a richer benefice. Uncharitable furmife! There is too much of this leaven to be found in a work, which, in other refpects, abounds in piety and induftry. The fame Crantzius informs us, that Tanes, in fact, laboured in conjunction with Patto, and, after a while, was appointed his fucceffour to the See of Verden. Were the fufferings and hardfhips, which Patto and himself had fuftained among barbarians, likely to render the bishopric of Verden an enviable object of ambition? I know no other ground on which the propagation of the Gospel may be difcovered in this century. The accounts of the labours of Spanish paftors among the Mahometans, or of the fufferings of the Chriftians under the perfecutions of the Moors, are not fufficiently authenticated. The reader, I hope, has feen, in this dark century, a clear demonftration, that the Church of Chrift ftill exifted. He may now, if he please, defcend with me, to the ultimate point of Chriftian depreffion. See A. Butler, Vol. II. CENTURY CENTURY X. CHA P. I. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE CHURCH IN THIS CENTURY. THE HE famous annalift of the Roman Church, whose partiality to the See of Rome is notorious, has, however, the candour to own, that this was an iron age, barren of all goodness; a leaden age, abounding in all wickednefs; and a dark age, remarkable above all others for the fcarcity of writers, and men of learning *. "Chrift was then, as it appears, in a very deep fleep, when the ship was covered with waves; and what feemed worfe, when the Lord was thus afleep, there were no difciples, who, by their cries, might awaken him, being themselves all fast asleep." Under an allufion by no means incongruous with the oriental and fcriptural tafte, this writer represents the Divine Head of the Church as having given up the Church, for its wickedness, to a judicial impenitency, which continued the longer, because there were scarce any zealous fpirits, who had the charity to pray for the cause of God upon earth. I give this ferious and devotional fenfe to Baronius, because the words will bear it, without the leaft violence, and the phrafeology is perfectly scriptural †. Baron. Annal. Infidel + As for instance, Awake, why fleepest thou, O Lord? Pf. xliv. Infidel malice has with pleasure recorded the vices and the crimes of the popes of this century. Nor is it my intention to attempt to palliate the account of their wickedness. It was as deep and as atrocious as language can paint; nor can a reafonable man defire more authentic evidence of hiftory, than that, which the records both of civil and ecclefiaftical hiftory afford, concerning the corruption of the whole Church. One pleasing circumftance, however, occurs to the mind of a genuine Chriftian; which is, that all this was predicted. The Book of the Revelation may juftly be called a prophetic history of these transactions, and the truth of Scripture is vindicated by events of all others the moft difagreeable to a pious mind. What materials then appear for the hiftory of the real Church? The propagation of the Gospel among the pagan nations, and the review of fome writers of this century, form the principal materials, and fhall be the fubjects of two diftin&t chapters. But the general description of the fituation of the Church, can be little elfe than a very fuccinct enumeration of the means made use of to oppose the progrefs of popery. 909. The decrees of the council of Frankfort against image-worship, had ftill fome influence in Ger- A.D. many, France, and England. In the year 909, a council was held at Trofle, a village near Soiffons in France, in which they expreffed their fentiments of Chriftian faith and practice, without any mixture of doctrine that was peculiarly popish. Many churches ftill had the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. The monks took much pains in our island, to erect an independent dominion on the ruin of the fecular clergy. This fcheme, equally deftructive of civil and clerical authority, met, however, with a vigorous, and, in a great measure, a - fuccefsful fuccessful refiftance; and the celibacy of the clergy was ftrongly oppofed. The doctrine of tranfubftantiation itself, the favourite child of Pascafius Radbert, was ftill denied by many, and could not as yet gain a firm and legal establishment in Europe. Alfric, in England, whose homily for Eafter ufed to be read in the Churches, undertook to prove, that the elements were the body and blood of Chrift, not corporeally, but fpiritually. In an epiftle, he afferts, that this facrifice is not made his body, in which he fuffered for us, nor his blood, which he shed for us, but is fpiritually made his body and blood, as was the cafe with the manna which rained from heaven, and with the water which flowed from the rock. Oppofition was alfo made by kings and councils to the authority of the pope. One of the most remarkable inftances of this kind took place in the council of Rheims, which depofed a bishop without the confent of the pope. The ftory is tedious and uninterefting. I have looked over the acts of the fynod, which are circumftantially detailed by the Centuriators in their history of this century; and a few words of the difcourfes of Arnulph, bishop of Orleans, the president, may deferve to be diftinctly quoted*. "O deplorable Rome, who in the days of our forefathers producedft fo many burning and fhining lights, thou haft brought forth, in our times, only difmal darkness, worthy of the deteftation of pofterity: What fhall we do, or what counfel fhall we take? The Gofpel tells us of a barren fig-tree, and of the divine patience exercifed toward it. Let *Bishop Newton, in his 3d Vol. p. 161, on the prophecies, of whom I have made fome use in a few foregoing fentences, affigns the words to Gerbert, of Rheims. The acts of the fynod which I have mentioned, fhew his mistake: they exprefly afcribe them to Arnulphus. Let us bear with our primates as long as we can; and, in the mean time, feek for spiritual food, where it is to be found. Certainly there are fome in this holy affembly, who can testify, that, in Belgium and Germany, both which are near us, there may be found real paftors and eminent men in religion. Far better would it be, if the animofities of kings did not prevent, that we fhould feek, in those parts, for the judgment of bifhops, than in that venal city, which weighs all decrees by the quantity of money.-What think you, reverend fathers, of this man, the pope, placed on a lofty throne, fhining in purple and gold? whom do you account him? If deftitute of love, and puffed up with the pride of knowledge only, he is Antichrist, fitting in the temple of God *." It is always a pleafing fpeculation to a thinking mind, to obferve the ebullitions of good fenfe and a vigorous understanding, exerted even in difadvantageous circumftances. It should be ftill more pleafing to obferve them, when they are under the conduct of humble piety, as it may be prefumed was the cafe in this inftance of Arnulphus. We fee here even Luther and Cranmer in embryo. The zealous and intelligent Frenchman laments, that the kings of the earth were committing fornication with the Roman harlot, and giving their power to fupport her grandeur. He cafts his eyes, toward the Netherlands and Germany, which appear to have had, at that time, a degree of light and purity unknown at Rome: he eagerly wishes to oppofe this light and purity to the darkness and the profligacy of Rome. Like Luther, he is fearful of throwing all things into confufion by hafty and precipitate methods: and, like Cranmer, in the cafe of Henry VIII.'s divorce, he wishes to appeal 2 Theff. ii. ... to |