rendered famous by the death and burial of Mahomet, and the innumerable pilgrims of Mecca often turn aside from the way, to bow in voluntary devotion, before the simple tomb of the prophet. Having thus briefly glanced at the rise and progress of Mahometanism, I quit the subject, to notice the state of the Catholic church.

The emperors of Rome and Constantinople who professed Christianity, had now been lavishing on the clergy riches, immunities, and privileges, during three succeeding centuries; and these seducing advantages had contributed to a relaxation of discipline, and the introduction of such a mass of disorders as wholly destroyed the spirit of the Christian profession. Under the dominion of the Barbarian kings, the degeneracy increased, 'till the pure principles of Christianity were lost sight of, in the grossness of superstition, in consequence of which, men were led to endeavour to conciliate the favour of heaven by the same means that satisfied the justice of man, or by those employed to appease their fabulous deities. As the punishments due for civil crimes, among the Barbarian conquerors, might be bought off by money, they attempted, in like manner, to bribe heaven, by benefactions to the church, in order to supersede all future inquest. They seem to have believed, says the Abbe de Mably, that avarice was the first attribute of the Deity, and that the saints made a traffic of their influence and protection. "Our treasury is poor," said Chilperic, king of the Franks, our riches are gone to the church; the bishops are the kings." And true it is that the superior clergy, by the influx of wealth and the acquisition of lauds, combined the influence of worldly grandeur with that of religion, insomuch that they were often the arbiters of kingdoms, and disposed of the crown, while they regulated the affairs of the state.

Historians have exhibited to us the most melancholy

picture of the universal darkness and ignorance, which, at the beginning of the seventh century, had overspread all ranks of men. Even the ecclesiastical orders scarcely afforded an exception to this general description. Among the bishops, the grand instructors and defenders of the Christian church, few, we are told, could be found whose knowledge and abilities were sufficient to compose the discourses, however mean and incoherent, which their office sometimes obliged them to deliver to the people, The greater part of those among the monastic orders, whom the voice of an illiterate age had dignified with the character of learning, lavished their time and talents in studying the fabulous legends of pretended saints and martyrs, or in composing histories equally fabulous, rather than in the cultivation of true science, or the diffusion of useful knowledge, The want even of an acquaintance with the first rudiments of literature was so general among the higher ecclesiastics of those times, that it was scarce, ly deemed disgraceful to acknowledge it. In the acts of the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, many examples occur, where subscriptions are to be found in this form

I, such an one, have subscribed by the hand of such an one, because I cannot write. And, such a bishop having said that he could not write, I, whose name is underwritten, have subscribed for him."*

We may take a specimen of the divinity that was current during the seventh century, from the description given of a good Christian by the highly revered St. Eloi, Bishop of Noyon, in one of his famous homilies. We are informed by the writer of his life, that "besides his other miraculous virtues, one was especially bestowed on him of the Lord; for on his diligent search, and persevering with singular ardour of faith in this investigation, many bodies of holy martyrs, concealed from human

* White's Bampton Lectures, Serm, ii. and notes p. 6.

knowledge for ages, were discovered to him, and brought to light!" Let the reader mark the divinity of this renowned bishop.

"He is the GOOD CHRISTIAN," says he, "who comes often to church, and brings his oblation to be presented on God's altar; who presumes not to taste of the fruits he hath gathered, till he hath first made his offering of them to God; who, on the return of the sacred solemnities, for many days preceding, observes a sacred continence, even from his own wife, that he may approach God's altar with a safe conscience; and who can repeat from memory the creed and the Lord's prayer." So much for his good Christian; on which the learned translator of Mosheim very properly remarks, "We see here a large and ample description of the character of a good Christian, in which there is not the least mention of the love of God, resignation to his will, obedience to his laws, or of justice, benevolence and charity to men, and in which the whole of religion is made to consist in coming often to the church, bringing offerings to the altar, lighting candles in consecrated places, and such like vain services."

But let us hear this luminary of the seventh century once more. "Redeem your souls," says he, "from the punishment due to your sins, whilst you have the remedies in your power. Offer your tythes and oblations to the churches-light up candles in the consecrated places, according to your abilities-come frequently to church, and with all humility pray to the saints for their patron. age and protection; which things if ye do, when at the last day ye stand at the tremendous bar of the eternal Judge, ye may say confidently to him, "Give Lord, because I have given."* Da Domine quia dedi.

*Surely the late Mr. Milner must have been very much off his guard when, writing of this bishop, he tells his reader-" Eloi, bishop of Noyon,

In several churches of France, a festival was celebrated in commemoration of the Virgin Mary's flight into Egypt -it was called the feast of the ass. A young girl, richly dressed, with a child in her arms, was placed upon an ass superbly decorated with trappings. The ass was led to the altar in solemn procession-high mass was said with great pomp-the ass was taught to kneel at proper places -a hymn, no less childish than impious, was sung in his praise; and when the ceremony was ended, the priest, instead of the usual words with which he dismissed the people, brayed three times like an ass; and the people, instead of the usual response, brayed three times in return.*

66

Every thing sacred in religion," says Mons. Voltaire, when treating of this period," was disfigured in the West, by customs the most ridiculous and extravagant. The festivals of fools and asses were established in most churches. On days of solemnity, they created a bishop of fools; and an ass was led into the body of the church, dressed in a cape and four cornered cap. Church dances, feastings on the altar, revelry and obscene farces were the ceremonies observed on those festivals, and in many dioceses these extravagancies were continued for seven centuries. Were we to consider only the usages here related, we should imagine we were reading an account of Hottentots or Negroes; and it must be confessed that in many things we did not fall much short of them."+

But it is disgusting to relate such mummery, and perhaps I ought to apologise to my reader for laying it before him. He may rest assured, however, that it is only a sample from a fruitful crop which it were easy to pro

carefully visited his large diocese-and was very successful among the people. But God was with him both in life and doctrine." History of the Church, vol. iii. p. 116.

* Robertson's History of Charles V. vol. i.

+ General History, vol. i. ch. 35.

duce. If he be shocked, as he well may, at contemplating such disgraceful things coupled with the name of the pure and holy religion of the Son of God, he will be glad to turn his attention with me to a more pleasing subject.

While the Christian world, as it has been the fashion to call it, was thus sunk into an awful state of supersti tion at a moment when "darkness seemed to cover the earth, and gross darkness the people "it is pleasing to contemplate a ray of celestial light darting across the gloom. About the year 660, a new sect arose in the east, under the name of PAULICIANS,* which is justly entitled to our attention.

In Mananalis, an obscure town in the vicinity of Somosata, a person of the name of Constantine entertained at his house a deacon, who, having been a prisoner among the Mahometans, was returning from Syria, whither he had been carried away captive. From this passing stranger, Constantine received the precious gift of the New Testament in its original language, which, even at this early period, was so concealed from the vulgar that, Peter Siculus, to whom we owe most of our information on the history of the Paulicians, tells us, the first scruple of a Catholic, when he was advised to read the bible, was,

is not lawful for us profane persons to read those sacred writings, but for the priests only." Indeed the gross ignorance which pervaded Europe at that time rendered the generality of the people incapable of reading that or any other book; but even those of the laity who could

* It is much to be regretted that of this class of Christians, all our information is derived through the medium of their enemies. The two original sources of intelligence concerning them are Photius, b. i. Contra Manichæos; and Siculus Hist. Manicheor, and from them Mosheim and Gibbon have deduced their account of the Paulicians. The latter writer has entered far more fully into the subject than the former, and, what is singular enough, he has displayed more candour! I have collected from these two modern authors the concise account given above, and have aimed at impartiality.