Arezzo, becoming old and infirm, and having buried his chief deacon, whom he called his right arm, appointed four prudent men to officiate for him (9). Here it is that the charge of avarice comes in. Three mighty paffions domineer over man in three periods of his life. Love rules his youth: ambition his middle age: avarice takes him, when he becomes a cripple, and too often liberates him only at the grave. Some baptifmal churches did not choose to be thus difpofed of, and their teachers did not approve of officiating by commiffion. The bifhops then invented a fort of alienation including dependence, and hence came collations of benefices, annates, or firft fruits, and a long lift of ecclefiaftical dues (1): dues which would have feemed unjust had they not been concealed under an appearance of equity by ordinations, inductions, installations, inveftitures, letters of orders, bulls, feals, palls, benedictions, confirmations, and fo on; all which had the air of doing fomething for the money. It was with great reluctance that the bifhops refigned baptifmal churches, and fometimes they granted only parts, referving to themselves the other parts, which refervations Muratori thinks prove the charge of avarice brought against them by a council held at Pavia in the duchy of Milan. Thus in the year nine hundred and eighty-four, the bifhop of Lucca granted Andrew the prefbyter half a baptifmal church. This was not without a precedent, for nine years before, his predeceffor had granted the fourth part of a baptifmal church to Arnolf a prefbyter. Thus they divided among themselves the gifts of the living, and the donations of the dead. The revenue accumulated in time by thefe means feems enormous, and the computation would pafs all belief were it not authenticated by the best evidence. It was fhrewdly obferved by a British convocation in an addrefs to Henry the Eighth for an act to take away annates, that parchment and lead be very dear merchandize at Rome, and in fome cafes, an hundred times more worth, than the weight or counterpoife of fine gold.

(9) MURAT. Antiq. Ital. Tom. vi. pag. 425. Immo, qui et Irmenfredus, epifcopus Arretinus Diœcefim fuam præ corporis ægritudine adminiftrare non valens, eam in quatuor partes diftributam, quatuor prudentibus viris Ecclefiafticis regendam committit, circiter an. 1045 In nomine fancte et individue trinitatis. Immo, &c.

(1) Ibid. 428. Teudigrimi Epifc. Lucenfis bulla, per quam Andrea prefbytero dimidium confert ecclefie baptifmalis, &c. In Chrifto nomine. Ego Teudigrimus.. Andrea prefbytero..medietatem de ecclefia..S. Joh. Baptifte, quod eft plebem battifmale, &c...Collatio quarta partis Ecclefiæ Baptifmalis..Ego Adalongus.. Arnolfo prefbitero.. in eccles. S. Petri et S. Johannis Baptifte, quod eft plebe baptifmale. Ex Chartophylacio Lucenfis Archiep.

STRYPE'S Mem. Eccl. Vol. i. app. An addrefs from the convocation to the king for an aƐt to take arway annates, exacted by the court of Rome... LOUIS THOMASSIN, Ancienne et nouvelle difcipline de l'egliffe touchant les benefices, &c.

MURAT. Antiq. Ital. Tom. v. Diff. Ixix. De cenfibus ac reditibus olim ad eccles. Roman. Spectant.

CENTII Camerarii Liber cenfuum. Anglia. In Archiep. Cantuar. Monafterium de Fervefcham unam marcham argenti, &c.

Seven hundred years Chriftians out of gratitude beftowed liberal gifts on the church; but in the middle of the eighth century, about the time that Pope Stephen called Pepin into Italy to fuccour him against the Lombards, a new fcene opened, and the next five centuries prove, in the hiftory of mankind, that in most men fear is a much more powerful motive in religion than love (2). The far greater part of the princes of thofe times were a barbarous fighting bloody race of men. The union of the church of the harmless Jefus with fuch men depraved the morals of the church. Depravity of manners was fucceeded by doctrines of accommodation. The few could not prevail with the many to love God, they therefore endeavoured to make them fear him, and for this purpose declaimed on what religion hath of the terrible, as judgment and hell. The fcheme took it was believed the world was nearly at an end, and the most wicked dreaded the approach of the judge, and fought to appease his anger. Comparing the unbloody ecclefiafticks with themselves they thought them faints of fuperabundant merit, and complimented them as fuch. The faints, who knew fuch as themfelves had been formerly put to death for fedition by fuch men, liftened to this new language, believed the flattery, and in the compaflion of their hearts contrived a mode of transferring their merits to thefe gloomy penitents, and nothing was wanting but time to give the transfer effect. This difficulty was foon

(2) MURAT. Antiq. Ital. Tom. vi. Diff. Ixxi. Duplex erat olim, uti et nunc, temporalium bonorum claffis. Ad priorum fpectant privata, qualia funt prædia, ædes, fylvæ, pecunia, et id genus alia.. Altera pars complectitur bona publica, quæ ad rempublicam five principem pertinent, et regalia appellantur, five corporales res, five jura fint. Atque inter ea numeramus imperium in populos, Angarias, Perangarias, jurifdictionem, vectigalia, monetam, flumina, metallorum fodinas, falinas, aliaque non pauca apud juris peritos legenda... Regalia, legem dicere populis, eofque legibus et pænis coercere, Judices ac tributa ftature, confcribere milites, fuoque jure bellum indicere, uno verbo civitatibus, caftellis, ac regionibus, fæculari poteftate ac ditione dominari, et principem temporalem agere, nondum legi ante fæculum a Chrifto nato octavum, cuiquam ex ecclefiafticis viris conceffum. Primi, quantum quidem mihi videtur, qui fplendidum dominationis hujus temporalis exemplum dedere, Romani Pontifices fuerunt. Potitis enim Langobardis regibus Exarchatu Ravenna, iifque Romam ipfam occupare nitentibus, Stephanus ii. Papa An. DCCLIV. Gallias petens Pippini regis opem imploravit, &c.

Cur tanta ac tam fplendida acceffio facta fuerit Cleri opibus, fi caufam petis, non unam adferre poffum. Prima, atque omnium potiffima mihi videtur, peccatorum redemtio. Nempe iniquis iis temporibus vilia et cremina latius etiam quam noftro ævo abundabant: atque hæc eadem perverfa lues non raro afflabat ipfos rerum dominos, imperatores, reges, ac principes, quibus propterea pœnitentibus canonicæ pœnæ, tunc mirum in modum vigentes, a facris ecclefiæ miniftris indicebantur.

Splendere nunc videmus illuftri potentia, ac temporali ditione in caftella et urbes, non tantum modo romanum pontificem, fed et non paucos Germaniæ, et aliquot Italiæ archiepifcopos, epifcopos et abbates. Sed longe alia fuit olim rerum facies. Latius nimirum fefe exftendebat cleri utriufque dominatio in populos, et longe major, immo incredibilis opulentia fuit, atque in Italia præfertim... Peccatorum expiationem præ oculis, ut puto habuere principes et reges, qui romanæ ecclefiæ aut dono dederunt, aut tributaria effecerunt regna fua five principatus, aut urbes. In quorum numero conftat olim fuiffe regna Hifpaniæ, Arragonie, Lufitanie, Polonie, Danie, Bohemiæ, Angliæ, Hiberniæ, Hungariæ, et alia. 3 B

removed

removed by fome ecclefiaftical Columbus of that time, who difcovered in fcripture, that chart of the invifible world, a fpot unfeen before where gentle flame, like the foft lightning of a ferene fummer evening burns infects and noxious vapours, while it only purifies man. To this place, named from its qualities Purgatory, abfolutely the only hope of a departing finner, which if it were not could not make the cafe worse, and if it were, as the learned affirmed, might make it better, numbers wifhed to go rather than to hell, especially as the faints on earth promised to affift them with all their influence and merit, to reap the benefit of the place. For this purpofe, feeling for the agonies of departing fouls, they turned their attention every way, collected all that might have a chance of giving their good wishes effect, and to the prayers of the living joined the bones and relicks of the dead. Now every tide rolled wealth into the territories of the faints not as formerly for the fake of religious benefits in hand, but for future benefits in hope. Gratitude had given money, houses, and lands, but fear toffed the fceptre and the fword into the lap of the church, and ecclefiafticks became fecular princes. Caftles, cities, marquifates, duchies, with all the royalties annexed to them, vaffals, fees, fines, tributes, falt-pits, mines, government in both its effential branches, legiflative and executive, founded a new kind of monarchy, in the throne of which, furnished with powers celeftial, terrestrial and infernal for ages fat one fingle man. All nations trembled before him, whom he would be flew, and whom he would be kept alive (3).

CHAP. XXXI.

The fame Subject continued.

BAPTISM CONNECTED WITH MONACHISM,

THE first monks took children to prepare by inftruction for baptifm. They foon found the benefit of this practice, and the tuition of children became the craft by which they acquired their chief wealth. They availed themselves of every artifice to procure little ones, and they became by habit fuch adepts in the art of managing them that the property of the pupils was fure to fall into the common stock of the tutors.

Monachifm is of the highest antiquity, and in fome form or other always infefted the Eaft, where warmth of climate and luxuriance of foil

(3) DANIEL V. 19.

were

were temptations to enthusiasm and idlenefs too ftrong for fome weak heads to refift. There was a fect of the kind among the Jews, called Effenes. When Paul went first to Ephefus he found three kinds of religious people there: Pagans who worshipped Diana the city goddefs: Jews who worshipped the God of their fathers in the fynagogue: and difciples of John the Baptift. There was a fourth clafs, who took a new form from the apoftle. He had healed several diseases in the name, that is by the authority of Jesus Christ, and he had formed the difciples into a church that affembled in the school-room of Tyrannus, leaving the fynagogue to the Jews. Sceva, the Jew prieft at Ephefus, had feven fons, who were a fort of Effenes, monks, therapeute, travelling doctors, or as Luke calls them vagabond exorcifts, who understood the popular names of diseases, that is demons, in the literal fenfe of invifible beings that inhabited men and inflicted difeafes on them, and they fuppofed the name of Jefus was a charm. These men fet about exorcifing, or cafting out demons in a new form, and they took upon them to call over fuch as they supposed had evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jefus, faying, We adjure you by Jefus, whom Paul preacheth (1). They did not fucceed at Ephefus, and they fled but nothing can be more credible than that they, or fuch as they were the parents of Chriftian monachifm. Exa&ly fuch men appeared fingly and separately among Jewish Chriftians in every age, and in the fourth century, in Egypt and Paleftine they affociated into communities, and became confpicuous enough to obtain a place in history (2). Jerom, Chryfoftom, Athanafius, Caffian, and many other fathers of the fame complexion fpeak of them as of angels; and yet the fame Jerom observes there was no office fo mean, no service fo vile and naufeous that they would not perform for the fake of getting away the property of infirm and dying people (3). His words are too grofs to be tranflated: but the account is very credible, for they were neither philofophers nor contemplative Chriftians, but a fet of vulgar enthufiafts, or, to use the language of the facred hiftorian once more, vagabond exorcifts, the parents of exorcifm in baptism (4).

(1) AЯs xix.

Monachifm

(2) MURAT. Antiq. Ital. Tom. v. Diff. lxv. De monafteriorum ere&tione, et monachorum inflitutione. Vel ab ipfo ecclefiæ initio monachorum originem fi quis deducere velit, argumenta non deerunt.

(3) IBID. Eorum vitam angelicam pluribus defcribunt Hieronymus, Athanafius, Chryfoftomus, Caffianus aliique eorum temporum patres.

(4) JEROME A COSTA [i. e. P. Simon] Hift. de l'origine et du progres des revenus ecclefiaftiques. Frankfort, 1684. p. 33. Si nous ajoutons foi a ceque St. Jerome rapporte des preftres et des moines de fon tems, il n'y a forte d'artifice dont ils ne fe ferviffent pour attirer le bien des particuliers... Comme il feroit mal-aife de traduire en noftre langue les paroles de S't. Jerome avec le mefme force et la mefme grace qu'elles ont dans l'original, je me contenterai d'en rapporter feu3 Ba

lement

Monachism arrived in the Weft in the fourth century, and fixed its first publick feat at Milan about the year three hundred fifty-fix. Martin, afterward bishop of Tours, was the founder of this first monastery in Italy. Very foon after Athanafius by means of Marcella conferred the fame favour on Rome, but it was Benedict who formed monachism into a sys tem fuited to the times, and fo exactly did this fpecies of devotion fall in with the views of the Italian Catholicks, that within the fourth and fifth centuries monafteries abounded at Milan, Rome, Ravenna, Nola, and elfewhere, as they did foon after all over Europe, and the Catholicks. own, the monks were the chief fupport of eaftern catholicifm, and of the church of Rome (5). The eaftern monks had copied the oblation of children to God from the hiftory of Samuel; the parents of Gregory of Nazianzen had made an oblation of all theirs before they were born. Bafil reduced the confufed ideas of his contemporaries to rule, and had made one rule for receiving children, for he laid it down as an axiom that inftruction was to precede baptifm. His words are express, and he not only urges the command of Chrift as an authority to baptize, but he ftrenuoufly pleads for an observation of the order of words as a rule for the order of things. Thus he begins: "Our Lord Jefus Chrift, the only begotten fon of the living God, having received after his refurrection the promife, which God his Father made by the prophet David, faying, thou art my fon, this day have I begotten thee: afk of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermoft parts of the earth for thy poffeffion: affembled his difciples, and first made known to them the power which he had received from God his Father: faying, Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft, teaching them to obferve all things whatsoever I command you. The Lord firft commanded them to teach all nations, and afterward fubjoined baptizing them, and fo on, but you neglecting the firft require of us a reafon for the laft....we think it neceffary to explain and confirm the order prefcribed by the Lord." Benedict copied Bafil's rule of oblation with an amendment, that children once admitted fhould continue monks for life, and inferted it in his rules; and

lement quelques extraits en Latin... Il decrit les fervices bas et honteux que les preftres et les moines de fon tems rendoient aux veillards et aux dames qui eftoient fans enfans, afin d'avoir leur biens et leur heritages. Audio, dit il, in fenes et anus abfque liberis quorundam turpe fervitium. Ipfi apponunt matulam, obfident lectum, purulentiam ftomachi et phlegmata pulmonis manu propria fufcipiunt, &c.

(5) MURAT. ut fup. Illud certe fatendum eft, quoties æquis lancibus, et veterum monachorum acta penfemus, maximum catholicæ religionis fulcrum fuiffe monachicum inftitutum cum in oriente, tum in occidente.

GREG. TURON. Hift. Franc. Lib. x. Cap. 31. Apud urbem Mediolanenfem Italiæ primo monafterium conftituit... SEVERI SULPICII Vit. S. MARTINI. Cap. iv.