again subdivided into two parts the first and second as may be seen since the fourth Century It was needful at the entrance of this Discourse to give the Reader this short Draught of the Countries that went under the Name of Gallia to give him an Idea of that part of them where we intend to shew him the Continuation of that Church which gave birth to the Albigenses and furnished the West with Witnesses of so great weight against the Corruptions of the Romish Party and indeed though the Visi-Gothes who cut off these Provinces from the Roman Empire and afterwards the French who destroyed the Visi-Gothes in the time of Clovis made very great Changes in this Division of Gallia Narbonensis and Aquitain yet we may exactly observe that the Church of these Provinces hath well nigh always made a distinct Body by her Synods and Canons It is a matter of Difficulty precisely to fix the first Rise of these Churches I own that some Greek Fathers have believ'd that St. Luke and Crescens Disciples of St. Paul did preach the Gospel in Gallia but that which engaged them in this Opinion seems of little or no solidity And the Galatia mention'd by St. Paul in the second of Timothy doth not signify Gallia but a Province of the lesser Asia as the learned Petavius acknowledgeth Others have believed that St. Paul himself preached the Gospel in these Provinces as he passed through them in his way to Spain where the fourth Century took it for granted that he preached the Gospel but neither doth this seem grounded upon sufficient Authority and we do not find that the antient Authors of these Countries did ever maintain any such thing Should we indeed as to this Point give credit to the most part of the Romish Legends to which Baronius in his Annals pays too great a Deference it would be an easy matter to give to the most part of these Churches a most august Original We might suppose that St. Peter and St. Paul were the Founders of them by the Ministry of their Disciples or that Clement Bishop of Rome sent them thither almost immediately after the Martyrdom of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul They tell us that Paul was the first Bishop of Narbon Saturninus of Tholouse Martialis of Limoges Frontinus of Perigueux Vincentius of Daeqs Georgius of Puy Eutropius of Xaintes Much like as for some Ages since in most of the other Churches of France they suppose that the first Bishops were sent them by the same Apostles or by their first Successors But we meet with nothing but Falsities in these pretended Traditions and it is impossible to reconcile them with what Sulpicius Severus and Gregorius Turonensis tell us concerning the Rise of Christian Religion among the Gauls The former of these distinctly assures us that Gaule never had any Martyrs before the Empire of Aurelius Son of Antoninus Hist lib. 2. Sub Aurelio Antonini filio Persecutio quinta agitata ac tunc primum inter Gallias Martyria visa serius trans Alpes Dei Religione suscepta The fifth Persecution was carried on under Antonine's Son and then first were Martyrdoms seen among the Gauls the Divine Religion having been later entertained beyond the Alps. This single Period of Severus gives Sentence against all those pretended Martyrs wherewith the Churches of France have fill'd their Breviaries The latter tells us plainly that it was not till the Empire of Decius about the year 250 that the City of Tholouse had for her first Bishop Saturninus who was sent from Rome in company of six others into the Country of the Gauls to preach the Gospel to wit Gatian at Tours Trophimus at Arles Paul at Narbon Dionysius at Paris Austremoine at Clermont and Martialis at Limoges This is that which is clearly proved from the Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Saturninus cited by Gregory Bishop of Tours These Testimonies of two antient Authors the one of the 5 th Century and the other more antient viz. the same who wrote the Martyrdom of St. Saturninus have made such an Impression upon some of the Learnedest Men of the Roman Communion viz. upon Bosquet Bishop of Montpellier Sirmond and Launoy the famous Doctor of the Faculty of Paris as to make them with Scorn reject those Legends which ascribe more antient Founders to these Churches notwithstanding that they are the greatest Ornament of the Breviaries of the Gallican Church and that they cannot lose their Credit without shaking the belief of abundance of Miracles and the Authority of a great number of Devotions And indeed what reason is there to own a Tradition for authentick which we scarcely find back'd with any Witness for the space of above 700 years Besides don't we know that it was the Dispute about Precedency between the Churches in the 8 th and 9 th Century and which we find lasted till the 12 th that engaged the several Parties to devise this great Antiquity and boldly change that which before had been the current Belief of their Churches because it did not answer their Pretensions nor comport with their Vanity to substitute instead thereof fabulous Originals under whose shelter they might maintain a Dispute with more advantage against those that were on even ground with them But however it be difficult to fix the certain Original of these Churches for the Gothick Liturgy which was used in these Provinces assures us that St. Saturninus came from Smyrna from whence it should seem that the first Founders of the Churches of Lions and Vienna came likewise yet thus much we may assert that the Gospel soon took deep root there My Design is not to refute here what the Authors of the Legends have inserted in their fabulous Relations concerning the Establishment of the Christian Religion in these Provinces and the Character of the Piety of those first Founders of Christianity of their Precepts and of their Miracles Indeed there is reason to deplore either the boundless Impudence of the Pastors of the Roman Communion in obtruding such palpable Falsities or the prodigious Stupidity of the People of that Church who feed themselves with Stories more fabulous than those of Amadis of Gaul and make them the Subject of their Devotion We read in the Life of St. Martialis that after the Saint had converted Limoges he there consecrated Churches to the Honour of Jesus Christ of the H. Virgin and St. Stephen whose Cousin he was We read that he raised to Life the Priests of the Idol whom God had struck dead with a Clap of Thunder for their poisoning St. Martialis and that after their Resurrection he converted them We find that he admitted to the Vow of Virginity a Person called Valeria who some time after having had her Head cut off by order of the Duke of Guienne whose Courtship she had slighted immediately took up her Head and carried it to St. Martialis as he was saying Mass We find him there going to Rome to give an account to
Preaching tends to the Subversion of the Weak and Ignorant Above all they prove from Scripture that Women to whom Silence only is recommended must not undertake to teach Lastly They represent to the Waldenses that they do ill in rejecting Prayer for the Dead which hath so much Foundation in Scripture and so clear a Succession in Tradition And as these Hereticks absented themselves from the Churches to pray amongst themselves in private in their Houses they tell them that they ought not to leave the House of Prayer the Holiness whereof was so much recommended in Scripture and even by the Son of God himself Here we may see the Albigenses in case they be the Persons concern'd though the Bishop pretends they are the Waldenses sufficiently cleared from all the Accusations of Manicheism that can be formed against their Faith For according to these Articles if we believe the Bishop of Meaux they cannot be charged with any thing of Arianism much less of Manicheism I cannot perfectly agree to what the Bishop of Meaux concludes from their examining only these pretended Differences in the Conference held before the Archbishop of Narbon that there was no other Difference betwixt the Church of Rome and those against whom the Papists disputed at this Conference There are solid Reasons that hinder me from being of the Bishop's Opinion but however it be he cannot defend himself from having furnished his Adversaries with the most compendious way in the World to overthrow without much enquiry all that he had done to prove that the Albigenses were guilty of Manicheism For in truth this Dispute whereof the Abbot of Foncaud gives us an account was not maintain'd against the Vaudois but against the Albigenses For 1. the Bishop might easily have discover'd as much from the Presence of the Archbishop of Narbon the Matter in question relating to the Interest of his Diocess 2. Because the Abbot of Foncaud who is the Relator was one of the principal Actors his Abby being in the Diocess of Narbon 3. Because this Conference with some others served as a Prologue to the Cruelties exercised against the Albigenses the Church of Rome and her Ministers having already made use of these Ways of Sweetness before they came to the Extremities of a Croisade which interrupted their other Projects towards Greece and the Holy-Land It follows clearly from hence that according to the Acknowledgment of the Bishop the Albigenses cannot be more justly accused of Manicheism than the Vaudois concerning whom he pretends that the Abbot of Foncaud speaks I cannot imagine how the Bishop can answer the Force of this Argument except only by denying that he is mistaken and pretending that this Conference was held with some of the Vaudois who had fled into the Diocess of Narbon and had so considerably propagated their Doctrine there that a publick Dispute was judg'd necessary to stop the progress of it But 1 st it would be very strange that they should be able in so short a time to make themselves more considerable than the Petrobusians and the Henricians with whom we know that the Diocesses of Aquitain and Narbon were already fill'd according to the Testimony of their Enemies 2 dly Were it so it would be necessary to suppose that Bernard Archbishop of Narbon who died the second of October 1191 made it his Business to stop the Progress of some of Waldo's Disciples who at that time could scarcely be known John de Beauxmains Archbishop of Lions who condemned Peter Waldo not having possessed his See above 10 Years as far as we can judg which he then quitted to retire to Clairvaux whilst in the mean time he took no notice of the Petrobusians and Henricians 3 dly It is ridiculous to suppose against the Credit of all Historians that the Vaudois compos'd a distinct Body from the Albigenses who as we shall shew hereafter clearly suppose that there were no Vaudois that had Churches and that made a distinct Body 4 thly Neither do we find that the cruel Inquisition made any such like distinction about this Matter in using more or less Cruelty according to the Degrees of Schism and Heresy as 't is pretended they ought to do in case they would act justly But whatever Answer the Bishop may invent to defend his Opinion we have a sure Way to overthrow it without remedy and 't is the same which he himself hath furnish'd us with for he owns that the Conference of 1206 mentioned by the Monk of Vaux Cernay was a Conference with the Vaudois Besides that which Bernard Abbot of Foncaud hath set down we have another saith he in Peter of Vaux Cernay about the year 1206 where the Vaudois were confounded now all Men know that the Conference of 1206 was held with the Albigenses as Peter of Vaux Cernay who lived at that time assures us in his History of the Albigenses But why then will the Bishop say Did not they dispute before the Bishop of Nismes and the Archbishop of Narbon but only upon these four Points The Question is easily answered They disputed about many other Articles but either he who wrote the Conference did not give us a Relation of the whole as not supposing it convenient to publish their Objections against those other Opinions and Superstitions which the Albigenses oppos'd or else they wanted time to examine the other Articles of the Roman Faith which they rejected What I say now is not a Conjecture at random produced only to stop the Bishop's Answer but is Matter of Fact grounded upon the Relation which we have of the Conference of Montreal as I shall shew hereafter All this will lead us to pass a true Judgment on the Condemnations which the Popes King Alphonsus and the Emperor Frederick II issued out against the Albigenses in their Bulls and Edicts They endeavour'd in short to make them be look'd upon as infamous Manichees as a Company of Arians and as the most execrable Hereticks The Popes prepossessed the Kings and Emperors with these Notions by the reproachful Names which they fastned upon them after they had gotten the power to lead them by the Nose as so many wild Beasts hence proceeds that heap of Names which we find in the Bulls and Edicts of that time The Reflection we ought to make on all these Terms of Obloquy is this that excepting only the Names of Publicans and Cathari particularly given to the Manichees it appears from these Edicts that the Albigenses and the Waldenses did both believe the same thing But if what I have said is sufficient to shew the Injustice of the Bishop of Meaux in making the Albigenses pass for Manichees the matter may be still further cleared if we turn over the Books of Alanus Magnus surnamed the Vniversal Doctor for it appears clearly from his Treatise against the Hereticks of his time and above all against the Albigenses which he dedicated to William Prince of Montpellier that it was the Fashion at
your Duty to drive out the Hereticks from those Places where they rejoice to have found lurking Holes not only by your Preaching but also if need be by armed Force of Lay-men The Council of Tholouse assembled in 1119 where Calixtus II was present gave occasion to these bloody Executions The third Chapter enjoins all Powers to repress the Hereticks and that those that favour them be subject to the same Condemnation In the year 1163 the Council of Tours assembled by Alexander III had ordained that the Bishops of those Provinces where any of them were found should not suffer any one to harbour or shelter them that no Commerce should be held with them about the things of common Conversation and order'd temporal Princes to imprison and condemn them and confiscate their Estates and Goods In the year 1179 the same Pope Alexander III renewed the same Orders forbidding also their being buried in Places set a part for the burial of Papists In 1181 Henry who from Abbot of Clairvaux had been made Bishop of Alby having as Legate gathered together some considerable Forces by his Preaching went to visit them with armed Force but they to avoid the Storm that threatned them pretended to abjure their Errors but no sooner was the Storm blown over but they liv'd as they did before So that the Contagion spread it self through several Provinces on both sides of the Loire and one of their false Apostles called Terric who had hid himself a long time in a Cave at Corbigny in the Diocess of Nevers was taken and burnt and many more suffered the same Punishment in several other places This was that Sweetness of the Church of Rome which the Bishop of Meaux so much boasts of and which she put in practice long before she came to Conferences which served only for a Prelude to the utter ruin of the Albigenses which the Popes had designed long before Accordingly Innocent III as Mezeray tells us in the History of Philip Augustus finding himself unable to reduce the Hereticks of Languedoc who had almost gained that whole Province resolv'd to make an Example of Raymond Earl of Tholouse because he was their chief Favourer and because he had caus'd Peter de Chasteauneuf a Cistertian Monk and the first that ever exercised the Function of Inquisitor to be put to Death He excommunicated the Earl absolved his Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance and gave his Lands to the first that should seize them yet so as without Prejudice to the Right of Soveraignty of the Kings of France Whereupon the Earl was so frighted that being come to Valence to meet with Milo the Pope's Legate he wholly submitted himself to him and gave eight strong Places for ever to the Church of Rome as a Security of his Conversion and the Year following to obtain Absolution he suffered himself to be lash'd with Rods before the Gate of the Church of St. Giles where Peter de Chasteau-Neuf was buried and afterwards to be dragg'd to the Tomb of that Monk by the Legate who put a wooden Yoak about his Neck before twenty Archbishops and an infinite multitude of People after this he took upon him the Croisade and the Year following joined himself with those that took his own Cities and those of his Confederates But it was not his Repentance that ingaged him to endure so dreadful a Disgrace but the Apprehension he had of a terrible Tempest that was just then breaking over his Head for the Pope turning his Torrent of Zeal against the Hereticks which push'd the People on to the Deliverance of the Holy Land had this same Year ordered the Croisade to be preached up against the Albigenses and a great number of Noblemen Bishops and common People had already listed themselves in that Service the King himself furnishing 15000 Men maintained at his own Charges It is worth our taking notice 1 st That Pope Innocent III to encourage the Lords and People to the Holy War granted a Plenary Remission of all their Sins to all those who took up the Badg of the Cross vouchsafing also the Protection of the Holy See to their Persons and Goods as may be seen in his Epistles He absolved the Cities that had sworn to the Earl of Tholouse from their Oath of Allegiance upon that excellent Principle of the Church of Rome That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks because they do not keep theirs with God or the Church 2 dly That the Earl of Tholouse was not guilty of the Murder of Peter de Chasteau Neuf for we read that Earl Raymond went to meet King Philip to obtain of him Letters of Recommendation from the Pope that he might be fully acquitted of the Murder of the Monk Peter de Chasteau Neuf whereof they had most unjustly obliged him to confess himself guilty only because the said Murder had been committed in his Territories for which the Legate Milo had imposed upon him a most unjust and unheard of Penance From the Court of the King of France he went to Rome where he received Absolution immediately from the Hands of Pope Innocent III this being a Case reserved to him the Pope received him very civilly presented him with a rich Robe and a Ring of great Value and granted him plenary Remission and Absolution from the said Murder declaring that he look'd upon him as sufficiently cleared upon that Account In the Year 1209 the Army of these Cross'd Souldiers which consisted of no less than 500000 Men entred Languedock and attack'd the City of Beziers being one of the strongest Places the Albigenses had took it by Force and put all they found in it to the Sword so that above 60000 Persons were kill'd there as Mezeray informs us There happened one thing very remarkable at the taking of this City which was That the Zeal of these consecrated Souldiers was such that they put to the Sword all the Papists and Romish Clergy that were in the City The Earl of Beziers came out of the City and cast himself at the Feet of the Legate Milo begging his Grace in Behalf of his City of Beziers and intreating him that he would not involve the Innocent in the Punishment of the Guilty which would certainly come to pass in case the City should be taken by Force which would soon be done by such a great and powerful Army that was ready to scale the Walls in every Part round the whole City that it could not be otherwise but that in this Case much Blood would be spilt on both sides which he might prevent That there were in Beziers great Numbers of good Catholicks who would be involved in the same Ruin contrary to the Pope's Intention whose Design was only to chastise the Albigenses That if he did not think fit to spare his Subjects for their own sakes that at least he would be pleased to take pity of his Age and Profession since the Loss would be his who was under Age
speaking of the Power of St. Peter saith That the same is also granted to those who imitate him because all those that follow the Foot-steps of St. Peter can also lawfully bind and loose Lastly It is said in Malachy Chap. 2. I will curse your Blessings And in Ezekiel Chap. 13. Wo to those that quicken the dead Souls and who declare those dead that don't die If God say the Hereticks do curse the Blessing of wicked Pastors and declares that the Souls which they pretend to quicken do not live how can he communicate his Grace through their Channel The ninth Heresy is professed by the same Hereticks who maintain that it is neither the Office nor the Order but only the Merit of a good Life which confers the Power of binding and loosing of consecrating and blessing so that this is their Conclusion the Merit of a good and holy Life say they is of greater Efficacy to confer upon any one the Right of consecrating and blessing of binding and loosing than the Order or Office and therefore they have not received any Orders yet they believe themselves to be just and to have the Merits of the Apostles and so they take upon them to bless as the Priests do and say That they can consecrate bind and loose because it is the Merit and not the Office that confers this Power And because they pretend to be the Apostles Vicegerents they say that their Merit gives them this Charge In this it is that they chiefly oppose the Faith of the Church and declare themselves to be Hereticks But they endeavour to defend their Heresy by the Authority of Esicius who saith That the Priests do not bless by their own Authority but only because they represent Jesus Christ and that it is because Christ is in them that they can bestow their plenary Benediction And they say moreover that not only a Priest but every one that hath Christ in himself and represents him in his Life as Moses did has the Power of conferring Blessings The tenth Heresy is likewise taught by the same Hereticks who maintain that the Dispensations or Indulgences which a Bishop grants at the Consecration of a Church or upon any other occasion are not of any Value Their Reason is this Suppose say they that a Man be obliged to a Penance of three Years at the Consecration of a Church and one Bishop releases him of a third part of his Penance a second and third Bishop may do the like and thus for three Half-pence a Man shall be released of this three Years Penance And which is more these sorts of Dispensations are unjust for there is no Proportion between a Half-penny or a Crown and one whole Years Penance The eleventh Heresy is That the Prayers which are made for the Dead by those who are in any mortal Sin are unprofitable For say these Hereticks how can these Prayers do any Service to the Dead since they can do none at all to those who make them Can Prayers which are hurtful to them that make them be of any Advantage to the Person for whom they are designed Item in 3 q. in gravioribus it is said When a Judg is sollicited for his Favour to a Malefactor by any one that he hath no liking to it serves only to incense him so much the more and to make him pronounce a more severe Sentence So in like manner if any Man prays without Devotion it is the same thing as if he desired his own Condemnation for how can any Man whose very Prayer is Sin obtain by that Prayer any good thing for his Neighbour Or how can he whose Prayer deserves nothing at the Hand of God but Punishment pray profitably for another seeing God saith to the Sinner Psalm 49. What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or why dost thou take my Covenant into thy Mouth They call also Reason to their Assistance When a Priest say they celebrates the Mass he being in mortal Sin the Action that he doth is evil and deserves eternal Punishment and by Consequence he cannot merit for another the Pardon of his Sins because it is impossible to merit Good and Evil Reward and Punishment by the self-same Action They quote the Canon-Law also which forbids us to assist at the Mass of a Priest who we are sure keeps a Concubine They prove likewise by another Authority that Men ought not to pray or sing Psalms in the Church as long as they are under mortal Sin The twelfth Heresy is of those who deny Purgatory and who say that it is a meer Invention of the Church to make the People give Alms and Offerings and to be at the charge of pompous Funerals for the Souls of the deceased or other things of that Nature I confess he does not mention the Albigenses by Name and that he confounds these pretended Heresies of the Albigenses with others that are much more hainous and some that were peculiar to some few Monks and that he attributes some of them in particular to the Vaudois as if they had been proper to them only But one may justly imagine that this Monk who compiled this Work from the Writings of other Monks or Doctors of the Church of Rome had his Eye upon the Albigenses because he acquaints us that he follows Alanus and that he copies his Arguments Now we know that Alanus wrote against the Waldenses and Albigenses as the manuscript Titles of his Books inform us though like the Author of the Fortalitium fidei he confounds them in his Treatise with the Arians Manichees and other pernicious Hereticks to render the Waldenses and Albigenses suspected of defending all those Heresies which he opposes It may be thought strange perhaps that this Monk did not imitate Alanus in attributing to the Albigenses the rejecting of Transubstantiation and the Consequents thereof but the Wonder will cease if we consider that he designed hereby to deprive the Jews against whom he disputes of an Advantage which they might reasonably draw from some Christians rejecting that Opinion though they owned Jesus Christ to be the Messiah and the Books of the New Testament to be of Divine Authority at the same time and therefore he rather chose to refute the Arguments against Transubstantiation as coming from the Mouths of the Jews than as Objections made by the Albigenses And indeed except the tenth Argument of the Jews against Transubstantiation which supposes the Christians who teach this Doctrine to be no better than brute Beasts as not having Sense enough to know that Jesus Christ being a Jew by Birth could not by the Circumstances of his Institution of the Eucharist intend any thing but a figurative meaning as opposed to a real and that his Apostles being Jews likewise could not form any other meaning in all this Ceremony but such as was figurative there is scarce any other which this Monk hath not borrowed from the Disputes which the Albigenses and Vaudois have held with those
Those of the Church of Rome only know not what it is to disown the Rage and Slanders of their Predecessors She has accused the Albigenses of Manicheism and has done it on purpose to inspire her Votaries with a barbarous Cruelty against a People who refus'd to bear the Yoak of her Tyranny And 't is to please her that her Ministers must still go on to tear the Memory of those faithful Servants of God for the utter Extirpation of whom she formerly armed the Hands of all the furious Zealots of her Communion And as in handling the History of the Waldenses I thought needful for the Satisfaction of the Reader to make some Remarks on their Original their Succession their Separation from the Church of Rome and their Ministry so I intend now to follow the same Method exactly in these Observations on the History of the Albigenses and I hope this will be equally useful to shew what care God hath taken to preserve these other illustrious Witnesses of his Truth notwithstanding all those Corruptions that overspread the Churches of the West I have set down the Character of the Manichees both Antient and Modern in my Remarks upon the History of the Churches of Piedmont so fully that it will not be necessary to repeat what I say there in this Treatise 1. Because it is certain that it was rather Humour in the Bishop of Meaux that he did not accuse them of Manicheism than any due regard to Truth the Waldenses having been as much accused of Manicheism as the Albigenses neither are there any more solid Proofs to convict the Albigenses of those Errors than the Waldenses 2. Because this new Hypothesis of the Bishop of Meaux wherein he asserts that to accuse the Pope of being Antichrist is a Character of Manicheism is so excessively ridiculous that it is hard to guess how even the Bishop himself could ever give Entertainment to it It is a very surprizing thing to see the Bishop maintain in his new Commentary upon the Revelation that the Prophecies of St. John concerning Antichrist were actually accomplished above 1200 Years since Antichrist then must have made his escape in the Crowd without being at all perceiv'd for the greatest Lights of the Church and those who had their Eyes most open to discover him never perceiv'd any thing of all this Vega and Ribera who have written on the Revelations with as much Learning as the Bishop of Meaux were never able to make any Discovery in antient History that could be applicable to the Apocalypse and all the Romish Writers of Controversy must have been a Company of Asses not to stumble upon so easy an Answer which would eternally have stopp'd the Mouths of the Protestants in so ticklish and tender a Point But 't is no matter since two Protestant Authors and those of the first Rank too Grotius and Hammond have handed this Notion to the Bishop it being very probable that the Bishop did for this Reason hinder the Clergy from putting the Works of Grotius in the Catalogue of Books which they forbad a little before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and he would have been as civil to Dr. Hammond too if his Commentary upon the New Testament had been known to him any where else than in Pool's Synopsis And really these great Men very well deserv'd that a particular Regard should be had to them their Mistake in the point of Antichrist having prov'd as advantageous to the Church of Rome as their learned Works can be profitable to the Protestants But it is yet a more surprizing thing to see the Bishop make this Charge of the Albigenses against the Pope a Character of their being Manichees which none that have ever writ against them before have taken the least notice of Whatever the Success may be of so groundless a Charge I shall make it appear that the Bishop of Meaux could not accuse the Albigenses without making great Numbers of his best Catholicks suspected and Abettors of the Manicheism of the Albigenses in this Point I thought it was my Duty to clear Wicklef and his Disciples from the Slanders cast upon them by the Bishop of Meaux I know very well that he has done nothing but repeat the old Calumnies wherewith the Papists formerly endeavoured to blacken that great Man without taking the least notice of the Apologies that have been made in his behalf But either Men must resolve never to write against these Gentlemen or be content to undergo the Drudgery of repeating publickly those solid Answers that have been returned to their Accusations before which the Writers of the Romish Party always think fit to dissemble I hope however that seeing the Matter I undertake to treat of naturally engaged me to take notice of great Numbers of Matters of Fact which were necessary to be examined towards the clearing of this Subject and that the Malice and Cruelty of the Enemies of these antient Christians have robb'd us of what might be most material for their Justification the Reader will not expect I should put these Remarks into any other form than that in which I wrote my Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Churches of Piedmont For I could neither write a continued History nor dispense with the Examination of several Matters of Fact which could not be cleared so well as they ought without some critical Enquiries that will be unpleasant to all those who search for any thing else but Truth I have confined my self here entirely to the enquiry after and illustration of that alone and I am persuaded that those who will take the pains to weigh what I have said in these following Sheets with care will be of the same Opinion And I heartily wish that it may triumph over Falshood and Innocence prevail against all the Assaults of Obloquy and Slander CORRIGENDA THe Reader is desired to make Allowances for these Alterations in the first 100 Pages because the Publisher had not the Original French Copy till those Sheets were wrought off and he thinks that all Men will sooner excuse him for annexing them to the Preface where they may appear not so beautiful than if he should have suffered them to pass unregarded since that might have led the Reader into Mistakes and at last reflected upon himself He says this the more willingly because he is confident that no Man will charge the Author with it in the least since his Unacquaintedness with our Language easily justifies him from any manner of Imputation upon that Account Page 6. Line 20. read Gauls which they remained p. 7. l. 21. for Photinus r. Pothinus p. 10. l. penult r. by Feuardentius p. 19. l. 31. r. preserved us one of his Books p. 24. l. 24. r. trusting Chastity with any p. 27. l. 20. r. Pope Syricius to Hymerius p. 30. l. 1. r. But the pleasantest thing of all is that St. Jerome l. 11. f. Deum r. Diem p. 31. l. 11. for Deo read
pretended to confirm them by Confessions which the Cruelty of their Tortures have forced from them Neither is it only in this Work of his that St. Irenaeus informs us what in his time was the Faith of these Churches planted in Gaul for he hath left us five Books and Eusebius has preserved for us some Epistles of that ancient Bishop altogether refulgent with the Purity of the Faith delivered by the Apostles 1. St. Irenaeus gives us this for one Character of the Gnosticks that they embraced Doctrines which were not to be found in the Writings of the Prophets or the Apostles Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 33. And 't is with the same Spirit that he attributes to Hereticks the accusing of the Scripture for being unintelligible without the Help of Tradition whereas he maintains that that which had been preached was committed to Writing by the special Will of God to the end it might be the Ground and Pillar of our Faith Lib. 3. c. 1 2. And that it is to make the Apostles Hypocrites to suppose that they taught some things in publick and others in private whence it appears clearly that when he makes use of Tradition he only does it with respect to those scriptural Doctrines which the Hereticks opposed and whereof they pretended that the Apostles had left the contrary to those that succeeded them Lib. 3. c. 2. 'T is upon this occasion that he alledgeth the Testimony of the Church of Rome founded by the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul as of one that was most known Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam saith he propter potentiorem Principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles in quo semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab Apostolis Traditio For to this Church because of its more powerful Superiority it behoves the whole Church to come that is the Believers of all Parts for as much as therein the Tradition from the Apostles has always peen preserved by the Believers of all parts It is apparent that whatsoever Design he may have had to raise the Authority of the Church of Rome he makes no other use of it than to make out that it was impossible those Doctrines which the Hereticks gave out for Apostolical should be really so seeing they were unknown to a Church which had had the Apostles and their Successors for her Guides more especially seeing that Church was placed in the very Seat of the Empire which continually drew to Rome a vast number of Believers from all the different places of the Empire from whence they brought not along with them a different Tradition from that which they found in the Bosom of the Church of Rome That St. Irenaeus had no other aim but this is owned by F. Quesnel in his Notes upon the tenth Epistle of St. Leo pag. 809. And this appears evidently because after all that Esteem which he had for the Church of Rome he was not afraid to write to her Bishop very censuring Letters upon the account of his having excommunicated the Churches of Asia that celebrated Easter the fourteenth of the Moon of March as also because he continued in the Communion of those Churches of Asia without being concerned at the Excommunication of the Pope of Rome 2. He reduces the whole Faith of Christians throughout the World to that which we call the Apostles Creed without mentioning so much as a Word of those Doctrines which the Church of Rome has superadded to it pretending to confirm them by Tradition Lib. 1. c. 2. 3. He maintains the Scriptures to be both clear and perfect Lib. 2. c. 47. 4. He rejects the Doctrines which the Hereticks grounded upon the Explication of some Parables maintaining that nothing ought to be established but upon clear and evident places of Scripture Lib. 2. c. 46. 5. It appears by his Writings that Penance at that time was publick without dispensing with Women that were overtaken with the Sins of Uncleanness by which means being exposed to extream Confusion it made some of them abjure Christianity Lib. 1. c. 9. 6. He makes it appear that Caelibat was not yet known in Asia whence these first Christians of the Gauls derived their Original which is acknowledged by the Fevardentius Lib. 1. c. 9. 7. He assigns to the Marcosians the custom of anointing those they received into their Communion with Balm Opobalsamo which shews that at that time extream Unction was not known And we may make the same Observation from his imputing to other Hereticks the anointing of Persons at the Point of Death with Oil and Water Lib. 1. c. 18. 8. He attributes to the Gnosticks the Imitation of the Heathens because they had the Images of Jesus Christ Lib. 1. c. 24. which makes it evident that the Christians had no Images much less that they gave to them any religious Worship And indeed we find him reasoning lib. 2. c. 6. after such a manner as shews that the Christians were yet in full Possession of a Right to reproach the Heathens with all those Absurdities that arise from the Use of Images The same may also be gathered from lib. 2. c. 42. where he divides the Law into two Tables in a manner very different from that of the Doctors of the Roman Church and altogether conformable to the Judgment of Josephus and other Jewish Doctors 9. He makes it appear that he knew nothing of the Separability of Accidents from their Subjects which is the sole Support of Transubstantiation lib. 2. c. 14. 10. He in plain terms â—ejects the Invocation of Angels instead thereof recommending that of our Saviour Jesus Christ lib. 2. c. 57. 11. He asserts that the Blessed Virgin had unseasonable Motions intempestivam festinationem John 2.3 so far was he from believing her wholly free from Sin lib. 2. c. 18. This shews that when he saith cap. 33. Quod alligavit Virgo Eva per incredulitatem hoc Virgo Maria solvit per fidem What the Virgin Eve bound up by her Unbelief that the Virgin Mary set free by her Faith he doth not own the Virgin for the Person that saved Men but his meaning is like that of Hesychius who said speaking of the Women to whom Jesus Christ appeared after his Resurrection Invenêre enim saith he mulieres quod olim amisere per Evam lucrum invenit ea quae damni occasionem praebuerat For the Women found what formerly they lost by Eve she found the Gain who had been an occasion of the Loss T. 15. B. P. p. 823. col 1. And this is the sense likewise of that other Passage of St. Irenaeus which we find lib. 5. c. 19. for though he calls the Virgin Eve's Advocate it plainly appears that he meant nothing else but what is express'd by St. Chrysostom in Ps 44. T. 3. p. 221. Virgo nos Paradiso expulit per Virginem vitam aternam invenimus A Virgin drove us
out of Paradise and by a Virgin we have found eternal Life 12. That he did not believe we ought to have recourse to the Intercession of Saints can be invincibly demonstrated from hence because he did not believe that the Faithful should see the Face of God before the Day of Judgment lib. 5. c. 3. 13. He plainly asserts that the Apostolical Succession is of no Consideration without the Truth of Doctrine Lib. 4. c. 43. so far was he from making it a bar to hinder Believers from examining the Doctrine propounded to them 14. He maintains that the Gates of Heaven were open'd to Jesus Christ because of the Assumption of his Flesh so far was he from believing that his glorified Body could penetrate Bodies Lib. 3. c. 18. lib. 4. c. 66. He asserts that Jesus Christ at his being born opened the Blessed Virgin 's Womb lib. 4. c. 66. which the Church of Rome condemns for divers Reasons And for as much as he holds the Holy Ghost to be the Food of Life lib. 4. c. 75. accordingly he maintains c. 2. lib. 5. that our Bodies are nourished by the Creatures of God received in the Eucharist and that they receive growth by them He distinctly asserts that the Sacrament of the Eucharist as to its Substance consists of Bread and Wine which are the Creatures of God which he receives as Oblations of a different kind from the Sacrifices of the old Testament and indeed in case he had otherwise conceived the matter he would have favoured the Opinion of the Gnosticks who pretending that the Work of the Creation was not the Work of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ could never have lighted upon a more comfortable Doctrine than that of Transubstantiation by means of which the Nature of Bread and Wine would be destroyed by Jesus Christ in the Sacrament and nothing left but the Accidents that is to say meer Fantomes without any thing of Reality L. 4. c. 34 57. In like manner we find him asserting lib. 5. c. 33. that what Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples in the Cup was the Generation or Product of the Vine 15. We see clearly from what Eusebius has preserved of St. Irenaeus that the Variety in observing a Fast before Easter was very great and that there was no Law of the Apostles or of Jesus Christ injoining it every one using it according to his own free Will and Devotion We find also that whatsoever Respect St. Irenaeus had for the Church of Rome he was no more inclined to be led by her sole Authority than St. Polycarp was whom he much commends and if he considered her as an Apostolick Church yet he never attributed to her any Authority over the other Flocks of the Lord. I will not dissemble that St. Irenaeus seems somewhat at a loss about the state of Believers after Death but to this it is sufficient to say 1. That we find in St. Irenaeus an Abridgment of the Faith almost in the same form that we find it in the Apostles Creed as it is called 2. That if we do not agree to all the Opinions of St. Irenaeus about the State of Souls after Death 't is certain that the Doctors of the Church of Rome do at least reject as many Articles as we do yea and more too From what I have said we may however perceive what was the State of the Christian Religion in Gaul a little after the middle of the second Century which is the time wherein St. Irenaeus lived and flourished I wish I could produce for the following Century as Authentick a Witness concerning the State of the Churches in this part of Gaul but indeed though there were diverse famous Writers whose Works are cited by St. Jerome yet there is in a manner nothing of them left to us I know there are some who believe that Victorinus was Bishop of Poictiers in the third Century but this is not found true for it is certain that he was Bishop of Passau Patavionensis and not Pictaviensis so that we must proceed to those who can inform us of the State of this part of Gaul during the fourth Century CHAP. III. The Faith of Gallia Aquitanica and Narbonensis in the Fourth Century ST Hilary Bishop of Poictiers a famous Confessor in the Persecution which the Arians stirr'd up against the Orthodox can afford us much Light concerning the State and Faith of these Diocesses This great Man was married as he who published his Works at Paris owns after the famous Baptista Mantuanus observing that the Law for the Celibacy of the Clergy was not yet introduced and that before that time as St. Jerom expresseth it they rather made choice of married Persons than unmarried because the former were judged more proper for the Functions of the Holy Ministry But this is not the only Article wherein he differ'd from Popery as well as the Church of Aquitain 1. He counts the Canonical Books as we do and plainly holds them for Apocryphal which we reject as we find in the Preface to his Commentary upon the Book of Psalms 2. He lays it down for an Error and piece of Impiety to look upon the Scripture as imperfect in Psalm 118. Lit. Vau. 3. He asserts that Ignorance is not capable of excusing Men seeing the Scripture is proposed to us as the Rule of our Faith and Manners Non habet veniam ignoratio voluntatis quia sub scientiae facultate nescire repudiatae magis quam non repertae scientiae est reatus Ob id enim longe à Peccatoribus salus quia non exquisierint Justificationes Dei Nam utique non ob aliud consignatae literis manent quam ut ad universorum scientiam notionemque defluerent Ignorance of the Divine Will gives no Excuse because to be ignorant when we may learn makes us guilty of rejecting Knowledg rather than missing of it For therefore is Salvation far from Sinners because they search not after that which justifies before God and which indeed is for no other reason preserv'd in Writing but that it might be derived to the Knowledg and Understanding of all This is a Stile and these are Maxims very different from those of the Church of Rome 4. He affirms that we are to be ignorant of whatsoever the Scripture doth not teach us and after having asserted that it is the Character of Hereticks to conceal the Holy Scripture fol. 204. he maintains that it is another Mark of Heresy to believe beyond what the Gospel teacheth us Tu qui ultra Evangelium sapis necesse est ut aliis alibi arcanorum doctrinis cognitionem Paterni nominis adeptus sis Thou who art wise beyond the Gospel it must needs be that thou hast elsewhere by other secret Doctrines attained the Knowledg of God the Father fol. 132. 5. He asserts that it was the Will of God that the Scripture should be plain and clear Quantae enim potuit Dominus verborum simplicitate
we are dead the Prayer of any one for another cannot be heard Probably also he might be too rigid in refusing to enter into the Churches of the Apostles and Martyrs to signify his Aversion to the Superstition which then began to be introduc'd as St. Austin complains De moribus Eccles cap. 34. 1. But it is false that because Vigilantius found fault with the Adoration of Relicks therefore St. Jerom maintain'd the same to be lawful he was so far from that that he upbraids Vigilantius with calumniating the Church by this his Accusation Quis O insanum caput aliquando Martyres adoravit Quis hominem putavit Deum Who ever O foolish Man adored the Martyrs Who ever took a Man to be God It is evident that St. Jerom takes Adoration to be an Act due to God alone and which he does not divide in two sorts as the Church of Rome does at this day which indeed makes three different sorts of it 2. It is false that St. Jerom maintains that the Church prayed to Saints whereof Vigilantius accuseth those against whom he had writ He agrees with Vigilantius that the Saints ought not to be prayed to even as Friends to Christ and Intercessors with God Ne ut Amici quidem Dei comprecatores ad Deum Is it not manifest that the Bishop of Meaux abuses the World when he quotes St. Jerom in favour of the Church of Rome which prays to Saints on both these accounts which are so expresly rejected by St. Jerom and when he upbraids the Protestants for following of Vigilantius in an Article which St. Jerom owns as well as he and the whole Church at that time But to speak the truth The whole of Vigilantius his Crime consists 1 st In that he was willing to bring the Discipline of the Council of Elvira in force again which was assembled at the beginning of the 4 th Century the Constitutions whereof were undervalued towards the end of the same Age after the Christian Religion began to bear down all its Opposers under the Reign of Constantine and his Children 2 ly Because he attributes to the Church some Customs which were not all of them authorized though they were already generally received and maintained by the Ignorant and Superstitious sort of People 3 ly Because he opposed some Customs as general which were capable of being explained in a tolerable Sense But indeed at the bottom St. Jerom and Vigilantius were very well agreed upon the Point we condemn in the Church of Rome neither do we find that the Church to which Vigilantius did belong did ever except against him Thus it is evident that the Protestants may look upon Vigilantius as a zealous Defender of the Christian Purity and one of those who oppos'd themselves against Superstition in its first rise CHAP. V. The State of the Churches of Aquitain and Narbon in the Fifth Century THis Age furnisheth us with several considerable Witnesses St. Jerom whom the Bishop of Meaux has endeavour'd to represent as our Antagonist is the first of them He saith speaking of Exuperius Bishop of Tholouse that this holy Bishop carried the Eucharist in a Wicker-Basket a way by no means agreeable to the Custom of the Church of Rome where it is accompanied with quite different Ceremonies 1 st Because it is made the Object of Adoration and that in the very Streets 2 ly Because People dare not touch the least Crumb of it as being persuaded that the Body of Jesus Christ which is in the Host multiplies according to the number of the Crumbs into which the Host may be broken 3 ly Because by this means it might come to be trod under foot or lost upon which a thousand Inconveniencies must follow It is worth observing here concerning this Custom of carrying the Eucharist about which was in use in the 2 d Century as appears from the Writings of Justin Martyr that it differ'd very much from what we find in the Romish Church since the 12 th Century For indeed since that time Rome has taken great care to obtain Laws whereby all that walk in the Streets whether Jews Heathens or Christians might be compelled to adore what she looks upon as her God But we find nothing like this in any Law of the Emperors or Christian Princes in favour of the Adoration of the Eucharist The 2 d Witness whom we may consult about the State of these Diocesses is Sulpitius Severus Monk of Primuliacum in Guienne And since he wrote at a time when the Zeal for that kind of Life did transport the best Men we need not wonder that he hath inserted so many Fables in the Books we have of his though setting those aside nothing was finer in that Age than his Writings But after all it is certain that notwithstanding all this leaven of a Monastick Spirit we find many Characters of a very pure Divinity in his Books this will appear from the following Observations whence it is obvious to conclude that he was not engaged in Popish Maxims 1. He maintains That it was Jesus Christ that wrestled with Jacob which Passage the Doctors of the Church of Rome corrupt to have an occasion thence to conclude that a meer Angel had blessed Jacob Pridie saith he quam inter se fratres convenirent Dominus humanâ specie assumptâ colluctatus cum Jacob refertur Et cum adversus Dominum praevaluisset tamen non esse mortalem non ignoravit benedici sibi ab eo flagitabat The day before the Brothers met the Lord is said to have wrestled with Jacob in a humane Form and though he prevailed against the Lord yet he knew him not to be mortal and desired to be blessed by him 2. He owns the second Commandment and distinguisheth it from the first Non erunt tibi Dii alieni praeter me Non facies tibi Idolum Thou shalt have no other Gods but me Thou shalt not make to thy self a Graven Image Neither doth he split the last Command into two as the Church of Rome does at present for he concludes the Decalogue in this Manner Non falsum testimonium dices adversus Proximum tuum Non concupisces quidquam Proximi tui Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour Thou shalt not covet any any thing that is thy Neighbours 3. He was so little persuaded that the Name of Catholick was a solid Character of the true Church that he confesses that Arianism had infected all the World See how he expresseth himself Eoque his certaminibus processum ut istiusmodi piaculis orbis terrarum implicaretur nam Italiam Illyricum atque Orientem Valens Vrsacius caeterique quorum nomina edidimus infecerant And these Contests proceeded so far that the whole World became involv'd in this Wickedness for Valens and Vrsacius with the rest whose Names we have mentioned had infected Italy Illyricum and the East 4. He minded the Pope's Power of suppressing Heresy so little that he
two things very clearly 1 st That at that time they kept the Bread of the Eucharist in a Casket or Coffer so far were they from making it an Object of their Adoration 2 d That the mingling only of the Bread that was consecrated before with the Wine that was not consecrated made them look upon the Wine though not consecrated by the Words of Jesus Christ as the Blood of Jesus Christ which is the most extravagant and sensless Notion in the World if we suppose that these Fathers were season'd with the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which attributes to the Words of Christ only the Virtue of changing the Substance of the Wine into the Substance of the Blood of Christ Allatius takes a great deal of pains to avoid this Argument which shews that the Greek Church that believes the same cannot be of the Faith of the Church of Rome In the mean time the thing is certain and Mabillon has ingenuously acknowledged that this is the true sense of that Canon And indeed there are many Proofs that make it evident that both the Greek and Latin Fathers were of this Opinion Salonius one of the most famous Bishops of Gallia Narbonensis owns no other Doctrine but that of the Old and New-Testament Drink Waters out of thine own Cistern and running Waters out of thine own Well S. By Cistern he means the Catholick Doctrine that is that of the Old and New-Testament and by the Well he understands the Depth and Height of the same Catholick Doctrine that is the various meanings of holy Scripture For in these Words he teacheth us to beware of the Doctrine of Hereticks and to attend to the reading of Holy Scripture He will have the Author 's Meaning and not Tradition to be the Explication of Scripture Do not remove the antient Land-marks or Bounds which thy Fathers have set S. By the antient Bounds he understands the Bounds of Truth and Faith which Catholick Doctors have plac'd from the beginning He would have no Man therefore receive the Truth of Holy Faith and Gospel-Doctrine any otherwise than it hath been handed down to them by the Holy Fathers and likewise commands that no Man interpret the Words of Holy Scripture otherwise than according to the Intention of each Writer He doth not own the Apocrypha How many Books did Solomon publish S. Three only according to the number of their Titles Proverbs Ecclesiastes and Canticles V. What doth Solomon say in the Proverbs or what doth he teach in Ecclesiastes and his Songs He assigns but two Places whither the Soul goes immediately For by the Tree Man is understood because every Man is as it were a Tree in the Wood of Mankind by the South which is a warm Wind is signified the Rest of Paradise and by the North which is cold is signified the Pain of Hell and the meaning of it is Wheresoever Man prepares a Place for his future abode if to the South when he falls that is dies he shall abide to all Eternity in the Rest of Paradise and the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven He makes it the greatest Absurdity that a Man should eat his own Flesh which yet follows from the Doctrine of Transubstantiation But that Expression He eats his own Flesh is spoke by an Hyperbole V. What is an Hyperbole S. When any thing is exprest that is incredible V. How is this exprest hyperbolically he eats his own Flesh S. Because it is incredible that any Man should eat his own Flesh but to aggravate the slothfulness of this Fool he saith that he eats his own Flesh to shew that a Fool rather desires his Flesh should waste by Hunger and be consumed by the Misery of Want than to support it by the labour of his Hands These are all Maxims concerning divers important Articles very different from the present Maxims of the Church of Rome I grant that Prosper who was a Native of Aquitain was no more than a Lay-man but he was in so great a Reputation that there were but few Bishops of his time that have shewn more Knowledg or exprest more Zeal for the defence of Truth than he did This Testimony is given of him by Cassiodorus Photius and Vasquez Wherefore his Testimony concerning the Faith of his Country must be of great weight with us Would we know the Opinion of the Church of this Diocess He tells us of a small part of the Body of Jesus Christ thereby meaning the Eucharist or the Sacrament which was given in little Bits And it is in the same sense that he speaks of a small part of the Sacrifice Expressions that are utterly inconsistent with the Notion of the Church of Rome concerning the carnal Presence And indeed it is plain in all his Writings that he follows the steps of St. Augustin in his Expressions and Judgments of things which are contrary to those of the Church of Rome This we may see in his Extract of the Sentences of St. Augustin where he repeats what that Father had said upon Psalm 33. upon occasion of these Words of the vulgar Version which says that David ferebatur in manibus suis in the presence of Achish Where it clearly appears that he understood those Words as well as St. Augustin did of the Sacrament of his Body which may be called his Body in some sense that is to say by way of Likeness as St. Augustin expresseth himself concerning it I cite nothing here from those other Works which are attributed to him because indeed they are none of his I shall only observe two things The first is that in his Epistle to Demetrius he plainly shews that he knew nothing of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning the Necessity of the Ministers Intention for the Validity of the Sacraments for there he attributes all to the Work of God and not to that of the Minister according to the Doctrine of St. Augustin upon the Question of the Validity of Baptism conferred by Hereticks The other is that as he follows St. Augustin in the Matter of Free Grace as one may see in his Poems gathered from the Opinions of St. Augustin and his Sentences so he rejects the Doctrine of Merit and Works as a pure Pelagian Doctrine in several Places of his Writings Lastly We must join with these Authors Arnobius the Rhetorician since it is very probable that he lived in Gallia Narbonensis because he has dedicated some of his Works to Leontius Bishop of Arles to the Bishop of Narbonne and Faustus Bishop of Riez who died about the year 485. Arnobius explains his Belief in the Matter of the Eucharist after this manner We have received saith he upon the 4 th Psalm Wheat in the Body Wine in the Blood and Oil in Chrisme So likewise on Psal 104. he saith of Jesus Christ that he administers not only the species of Bread but also of Wine and Oil. Thus it is he describes the Eucharist and
be wholly uncertain Gregorius Turonensis who often mentions him as his Friend never gives him any other Title but that of Priest However it be it appears by his Writings that he was very far from Popery in these following Articles 1. He never in the Life of St. Martin attributes to that holy Man that upon any occasion he prayed to the Saints for the working of his Miracles This we may see in his Relation of St. Martin's raising a Child to Life 2. He looks upon all Bishops as the Vicars of St. Peter accordingly he saith to the Bishop of Metz Apparet Petri vos meruisse vices It appears you have deserved to be St. Peter's Vicar 3. We meet with nothing more commonly in the Epitaphs which he made than this Notion that deceased Believers are in Heaven from such Expressions as these Hunc tenet ulna Dei Inter Apostolicos credimus esse choros Non hanc flere decet quam Paradisus habet Accordingly also he maintains that Abraham's Bosom is the Heavenly Glory Lastly It appears from an Exposition he hath made on the Apostles Creed that he owned no Doctrines besides those contained in that ancient Formulary as Articles of his Faith because he makes no mention at all of those new Articles which the Church of Rome hath added to that Creed and which she imposeth on her People as another part of that which makes the Object of Faith It cannot be denied but that the Spirit of Superstition had already made a considerable Progress in all places we meet with an illustrious Example thereof in the Diocess of Marseilles which joined to Gallia Narbonensis The People there began to render a religious Worship to Images whereupon Serenus the Bishop of Marseilles was forced to follow the Method of St. Epiphanius in breaking the Images to pieces which drew upon him the Censures of Gregory I. who exhorts him to erect them again though he commends him for having opposed himself to their Adoration and exhorts him carefully to instruct the People to prevent their falling again into Idolatry And it is natural to conclude that this Excess of the People met with the same Checks in many other places CHAP. VII The State of the Diocesses of Aquitain and Narbon in the Seventh Century I am come to the Seventh Century of which I have two pieces of great Authority to produce The first concerns the Purity of these Diocesses in regard to their Faith There was a Council held at Toledo in the Year 633 whereat Silva Bishop of Narbon assisted in the Name of the Bishops of Gallia Narbonensis and they began the Synod with a Confession of Faith which shews beyond all Controversy that nothing was look'd upon by them as an Article of Faith that was not received for such in the Creed of the ancient Christians for there was not so much as one Word to be found there of all those Articles which the Church of Rome imposeth upon those of her Communion as an Addition to the primitive Faith The second regards the Practice of the publick Acts of Religion and that is the Gothick Liturgy which of a long time was used in these Diocesses wherefore to make a fuller Discovery of the Religion of these Provinces it will be of Importance to make some Remarks upon this Liturgy which was in use there It is not probable that all the Parts of it are of equal Antiquity as may be seen by the Office of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in Soul and Body which was rejected in France as a thing uncertain towards the end of the 9 th Century according to the Testimony of Vsuardus One may make the same Judgment of divers other Offices which are found in this Gothick Liturgy the Barbarism which appears in all its parts sufficiently shows its Age In the mean time such as it is it does not want the Marks of a considerable Purity which it seems obliged Gregory VII to abolish and suppress it with all his Might 1. We find in it the Recital of the Apostles Creed as the only Profession of Faith which the Churches of these Provinces required of those who would be Partakers of her Communion 2. We don't find in it any Prayer address'd to Saints It supposeth all along from one end to the other that the Saints pray in general for the Church and on this Ground it is that therein they desire God to have regard to their Prayers and to receive their Intercession their Suffrages and so forth There is no greater stress laid upon the Power of the Blessed Virgin with God than on that of the Patriarchs and Apostles yea of the Anchorets and Virgins True it is that there is a solemn Commemoration of divers Saints but it may easily be perceived that it is only done out of a Design to glorify God by representing to themselves their Examples and forming or disposing themselves to imitate them This is done in the Office of St. Forrestus and Ferucio We find divers Confessions to God before the Liturgy but none at all made to Angels to the Blessed Virgin or Saints as at this day is done in the Romish Mass 3. We find there no particular Distinction for the Bishop of Rome only that the Bishop of the City of Rome is called the first of Bishops Mabillon in his Preface triumphs because of this Title but he is extreamly out in his account for hath the first Bishop any Jurisdiction over the second the second over the third We find there the Prayer for the Feast of St. Peter but with a Clause which Mabillon owns to be found in all the ancient Missals and is struck out of the Roman Liturgy in order to extend the Papal Monarchy over all the Earth We do not find therein the least Foot-step of Prayers for the Pope which shews that the Decree of the Council of Vaison wherein it was ordained that Prayers should be made to God for the Bishop of Rome was not observed throughout Gaul yea what is more the same Liturgy gives the Title of Head of the Church to St. Paul as well as to St. Peter We find therein no Adoration of the Cross on Good-Friday 4. We find therein an Office for St. Saturninus Bishop of Tholouse who is looked upon as come from the Eastern Parts in the place of St. Peter which shews that all the Bishops of France considered themselves as the Vicars of St. Peter as well as the Bishop of Rome Si quidem ipse Pontifex tuus ab Orientis partibus in urbem Tolosatium destinatus Roma Garonae invicem Petri tui tam Cathedram quam Martyrium consummavit For this your Bishop being sent from the East to Tholouse instead of Rome has now upon the Garonne filled the Chair and consummated the Martyrdom of your Peter 5. We find therein that the Confession of St. Peter was the Foundation of the Church and the Festival of his Chair is
therein referred to his Bishoprick Testis est dies bodierna Beati Petri Cathedra Episcopatus exposita in qua fidei merito revelationis mysterium filium Dei confitendo Praelatus Apostolus ordinatur In cujus confessione est fundamentum Ecclesiae nec adversus hanc Petram portae inferi praevalent St. Peter's Episcopal Chair which is shewn to this Day can testify this wherein by reason of his Faith when he confessed that Mystery that was then revealed even the Son of God he was ordained a Bishop In whose Confession is the Foundation of the Church neither shall the Gates of Hell prevail against this Rock 6. We read there that the Gates of Hell do not signify Errors as the Church of Rome will have it but the State of the Dead from whence the Faith which St. Peter hath professed delivers those who imitate him Let us pray saith he that the Souls of the deceased being brought up out of Hell the infernal Gates may not prevail over the Dead because of their Crimes which the Church believes are overcome by the Faith of the Apostle 7. We find there as in the Romish Mass an high Abjuration of the Doctrine of the Merit of Works And though we find the Word Merit often used in it yet we also meet with those necessary Explications of it as are sufficient to hinder any wrong Impression that may be made by a Word of an ambiguous sense 8. I do own that we find in it the Prayer for the Dead but there are a hundred other Passages which speak them to be in Peace in the Peace of God that they are at rest and other Expressions which very plainly import that they had not received the Notion of Purgatory no more than the Authors of the Roman Liturgy had at that time I know there are some Passages in it which seem to suppose the Souls departed to be in a place of Torment but I have two things to say to this Point the one is that those Missals whose Stile comes near to the Belief of the Church of Rome are of a later Date the other is that the ordinary Article pro pausantibus for those who are at rest imports nothing like a place of Torment To these two Considerations we may add That what is ordinarily requested for them is either that they may have a part in the first that is to say a more early Resurrection which is the same with the Opinion of the Millennium or that they may be written in the Book of Life or carried into Abraham's Bosom which shews that the State of Souls after Death was not more certainly determined by those who governed these Churches at this time than by the Members of the Catholick Church any where else We read that there are divers Flocks whereof each Bishop is the Pastor as well St. Cyprian as Cornelius Indeed we find that to every Bishop is given the Title of summus Pontifex and summus Sacerdos Grant unto us Lord who this Day are celebrating the Anniversary of the Decease of thy high Priest and our Father Bishop Martin We see there the manner of administring Baptism with the Unction or anointing called the Chrismation but we do not find that they made two Sacraments of them as the Church of Rome has since done We find there also the Consecration of Wax Tapers but yet without ascribing to them all those Virtues which the Church of Rome attributes to her consecrated Tapers in the Roman Order But I go on to that which is most considerable in this Liturgy Mabillon who hath published it in France according to the Copy printed at Rome pretends that it expresly shews that the Churches which made use of this Liturgy held the Doctrine of the Real Presence If instead of some Passages that he quotes we could find there a precise Order for adoring the Sacrament after Consecration as being become the Body of Jesus Christ which we do not find in any part of it there would indeed be some ground for his Pretension but there is not so much as a Word to this purpose which makes it evident that in these Diocesses they had not received this Doctrine nor the natural Consequences of it any more than in any other part of the Catholick Church for we find that as soon as ever this Opinion was entertained it was immediately followed with supreme Adoration Neither do we find any thing therein of the Sacrifice of the Mass any more than of the Adoration of the Sacrament which is another Consequence of the Real Presence We do not find any Masses there without Communicants St. Caesarius whom I have already cited would have accounted them ridiculous and a mere Profanation Lastly We do not find that the Communion under one kind was there thought to be a Consequent as it hath been in the Church of Rome of the Real Presence And yet one would think that the Fear of prophaning the Blood of Jesus Christ as being very subject to be spilt ought to have obliged them to take the same Precautions as the Church of Rome has since done to prevent such dreadful and yet such common Inconveniencies If Mabillon had well considered these essential Defects which a Papist cannot but naturally meet with in this Gothick Liturgy in all Appearance he would not have been so lavish of his Judgment But without making use of these just Anticipations upon the matter in hand let us consider a little whether the attentive Examination of the Liturgy be not sufficient to clear these Prejudices and oblige him to put another sense upon the Words which he hath wrested to confirm his Assertion The Characters we meet with in this Liturgy are these 1. It makes a great Distinction between that which is taken with the Mouth and that which is received by the Heart Grant O Lord that what we have taken with our Mouths we may receive with our Minds and that the temporal Gift may be to us an eternal Remedy This Observation is decretory for the Transubstantiators own that both Good and Bad receive the Body of Christ Goffridus Vindocinensis expresly asserts it notwithstanding that St. Augustin has rejected it as a great Absurdity 2. It supposeth likewise that Jesus Christ is above the Heavens and that he is no otherwise near to us than by the Communion of our Nature which he hath taken to himself Vt qui te consortem in carnis propinquitate laetantur ad summorum Civium unitatem super quos corpus assumptum evexisti perducantur That they who rejoice to see thee their Brother in the Nearness of thy Flesh may be brought up to the Unity of those highest Citizens above whom thou hast carried up thy assumed Body 3. It supposeth the Sacrament to be only a Commemoration We remember thy Suffering and thy Body broken for the Remission of our Sins Which is a plain Allusion to the Words of St. Paul
1 Cor. 11.24 and shews that the Authors of this Liturgy did understand them of the Cross and not as the Church of Rome doth of the Eucharist The Ambrosian and Gallican Liturgies have followed the Sense of the Gothick Liturgy which deserves some Observation We meet with the same thing again Thou didst command by Moses and Aaron thy Servants that the Passover should be celebrated by the offering of a Lamb for ever until the Coming of Christ and hast commanded the same Custom to be observed for a Memorial 4. It supposeth that we receive the Body of Jesus Christ spiritually Let us dearest Brethren who have been fed with the Food of Heaven and refreshed with the Cup of the Eternal Wine render never-ceasing Praises and Thanks to our God begging of him that we who have spiritually receiv'd the Sacred Body of our Lord Jesus Christ being freed from fleshly Vices may deserve to be made Spiritual What it means by the word Spiritual is very plain where it calls the Dove that appeared at the Baptism of Jesus Christ Spiritalis Columba And the spiritual Dove descending upon his Head by the Holy Ghost that camest thy self Thus it calls the Eucharist spiritual Sacrifices He hath refreshed us with the Heavenly Bread and the Spiritual Cup. 5. It takes for granted that the Believers of old did eat the same Living Bread which Jesus Christ gives us For he himself is the living and true Bread that came down from Heaven and always dwells in Heaven who is the Substance of Eternity and the Food of Power For thy Word by which all things were made is not only the Bread of humane Souls but of the very Angels themselves By the Nourishment of this Bread thy Servant Moses was enabled to fast 40 Days and Nights when he received the Law and abstained from carnal Food that he might be the more capable of tasting thy Sweetness living on thy Word Let this living and true Bread which came down from Heaven that he might give Food to the Hungry yea that he himself might be the Food of the Living become to us such Bread as that our Hearts may be strengthned thereby that so in the Power of this Bread we may be enabled to fast these 40 Days without any impediment from Flesh and Blood 6. It calls the Sacrament Gifts laid upon the Altar Be pleased to sanctify O Lord these Gifts which we offer upon thy Altar offering immaculate Sacrifices upon the Holy Altar Let us beseech the Almighty through his only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ who hath vouchsafed to bless and sanctify these Gifts by the offering up of his Body and Blood that he would be pleased also to bless the Gifts offered by his Servants 7. It calls the Sacrament Salutiferam Dominicae immolationis effigiem in sacrificio spiritali Christo offerente transfusam The salutiferous Representation of our Lord 's offering up of himself transfused into the spiritual Sacrifice whereof Christ himself is the Sacrificer or Offerer 8. We find there a Prayer whose Title is A Collect for the Breaking of the Bread after Consecration Which scarce proves that they were persuaded that the Substance of the Bread was destroyed by the Consecration 9. The same which in some Places it calls the Body of Christ it elsewhere calls the Sacrament of the Body 10. It reduceth all to the virtue of the Eucharist Keep within us Lord the Gift of thy Glory and let us by the Virtue of the Eucharist which we receive be armed against all the Pollutions of the World 11. It supposeth that the Body of Jesus Christ abides within us and prays that it may continue there incorruptible Hear the Prayers of thy Family Almighty God and grant that these holy Things which we have received of thy Gift we may by thy Gift keep incorrupted within us And again let us with unanimous Prayer entreat the Divine Mercy that these saving Sacraments being received into our inward Parts may purify our Soul and sanctify our Body and confirm our Hearts and Minds in the hope of heavenly Things 12. It calls the Eucharist Holy Bread Bearing in mind the most glorious Passion of our Lord and his Resurrection from the lower Parts of the Earth We offer up unto thee O Lord this unspotted Sacrifice this holy Bread and this saving Cup beseeching thee c. 13. It calls the Sacrament Holy Mysteries in several Places These many Instances one would have thought might have obliged Mabillon to believe that the Authors of this Liturgy did speak figuratively in some other Places where they seem to speak more strongly and to give us another Notion especially considering the manner of their expressing themselves when they speak of the Feast of St. John Baptist It it worthy and just equal and saving for us always to give Thanks to thee Almighty and merciful God and in this Banquet of thy Sacrament to join the Head of thy Martyr by an Evangelical Commemoration and to offer it upon thy Propitiatory Table as in a Dish of shining Metal And we may add several others upon each of those Passages which seem the most likely to deceive us If we had the Canon of this Liturgy which these Gentlemen did not think fit to give us we should there easily find the Solution of these Difficulties for it is very probable it was like that of the Ambrosian Liturgy where it was so clearly specified that the Bread was the Figure of the Body of Jesus Christ as that it put an end to all manner of Cavillings on the Point Indeed these Words The Figure or Representation of the Sacrifice of our Lord do plainly shew that this was their meaning But we must make a shift to help our selves with what they have been pleased to give us It is easy to judg what those Passages were which Mabillon judg'd to be most favourable to his Cause for he hath caus'd them to be Printed in great Characters that no Body might pass them by Thus the word Truth seem'd to him to determine the Question of the Real Presence the Words are these We beseech thee Almighty God that like as we do now perform the Truth of the Heavenly Sacrament so we may cleave to the Truth of the Body and Blood of our Lord. But this learned Benedictine has suffer'd himself to be overtaken by his own Prejudice The Author of the Liturgy distinguisheth two times the one before the Death of Jesus Christ which was only an obscure Image of a Thing that was to come this is that which is exprest in these Words Or that the Living Bread by denying of himself should not afford Life but for the Redemption of his Possession and the Praise of his Glory what before he vouchsaf'd in a Parable he may now vouchsafe in Truth The other wherein the Death of Jesus Christ hath authoriz'd the Signification of the Eucharist upon which
judging but with a necessity of believing which form the Apostle himself delivered saying Quench not the Spirit despise not Prophecies try all things hold fast what is good abstain from every Appearance of Evil. Which is absolutely false if an infallible Principle has continued in the Church whether in the Person of the Pope or in Councils or that we must of Necessity explain Scripture according to the Sense of the Fathers as the Church of Rome has defined 2. We see with what force he maintains the Canons of the Gallican Church against the Contempt which some cast upon them because they had been made without the Pope's Concurrence 3. We do not find that in his time they applied to the Blessed Virgin the Words of the first Promise by reading Ipsa tuum conteret caput She shall bruise thy Head for he reads Ipse tuum He shall bruise c. when he disputes against Felix Bishop of Vrgel 4. He maintains in the same place that the Notion of a Peoples being without Sin who yet confess themselves to be Sinners out of Humility is pure Pelagianism That if this is the Property of humble Saints why then doth John the Apostle say If we say that we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us but if we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins Who if like you he had been inclined to have not mean but great Thoughts of himself he had whereof he might glory because he lay in the Bosom of his Lord and was beloved of him above the rest of his Disciples James the Apostle also saith In many things we offend all which if any shall imagine not to be spoke in Truth but by way of Humility let him know that therein he follows Pelagius 5. He plainly declares that our Communion in the Sacrament is the same with that of the Believers of old when he applies that Passage of the 1 st to the Corinthians chap. 10. ver 1 and 2. of the drinking of the Holy Ghost and maintains in these terms that there is no other Difference between the Believers of the Old and New Testament but this That the great Sacraments of Salvation which are wrought by the Mediator for us and for them save us as being already past but them as yet to come because we believe and hold what is past they believed and held what was to come they held them only in their Minds as Figures of future things but we in an open Profession Vows and Declaration of things past under the Signification of sensible Sacraments as those two who carried one Cluster of Grapes upon a Staff did indifferently do the same Work only that the one of them had it behind his Back and the other before his Face I should be obliged to transcribe his whole Book against Pictures and Images if I should go about to extract all that it contains in Opposition to the Opinions of the Church of Rome It will be sufficient for us to observe that the Romish Index Expurgatorius hath forbid this Book as well as the rest till its Errors be expunged and indeed it did deserve no less for it maintains according to the Doctrine of St. Augustin that we ought not to adore any Image of God but only that which is God himself even his eternal Son and that it is a piece of Folly and Sacriledg to vouchsafe any Worship to Images and to call them Holy as the second Council of Nice had done He refutes the Excuse of the Council of Trent which only considers those as Idolaters that attribute something of Divinity to the Image He maintains it to be mere Paganism to have Images for any other use than that of a Memorial and at the same time asserts that Images are of as little Use and Advantage as the Picture of a Mower or of some Hero in Armour can advantage a Mower or Souldier who looks upon those Pictures In a Word he speaks exactly like a true Iconoclast for after he had said that it was impossible any longer to bear with the Abuses against which he had taken Pen in hand he adds From whence we may plainly infer that if Hezekiah a Godly and Religious King brake the brazen Serpent made by God's express Command because the mistaken Multitude began to worship it as an Idol for which his Piety was very much commended much more religiously may and ought the Images of the Saints they themselves approving it be broken and ground to Pouder which were never set up by God's Command but are absolutely human Inventions But besides this there are four other Articles which are as disrelishing to the Church of Rome as these 1. He maintains that there is no other Mediator between God and Men save Jesus Christ God and Man which he proves by the Authority of St. Augustin de Civ Dei l. 9. c. 15. 2. He looks upon those as worthy to be anathematized and excommunicated from the Church of God who should undertake to dedicate a Church to the most excellent of Saints or Angels If any of us saith he should make a Temple of Wood or Stone to any though the most excellent of Saints we ought for doing that to be anathematized from the Truth of Christ and from the Church of God because by so doing we should give that Worship to the Creature which is only due to the Creator 3. Having given a Relation of the manner how the Faithful gathered up the Bones of St. Polycarp and interr'd them in a place where they intended to meet and celebrate his Memory to encourage Believers to imitate the constancy of that Martyr he declares that all manner of Worship or Honour done to them over and above this is unlawful religious Worship being due to God alone 4. He proves that his Judgment concerning these Points is founded upon the Example of the antient Doctors up-their Opinions and upon the Book of the Sacraments of the Church of Rome that it was the ground of the antient Doctors of the Church who rejected the Worship which the Arians gave to Jesus Christ as idolatrous tho they owned him to be no more than a Man The Reader needs not take much pains to apprehend why Rome thought fit to condemn these Books of Agobardus tho he may be at a loss how it comes to pass that notwithstanding all this he is at this day held for a Saint and publickly ador'd at Lions under the Name of St. Agobo This is a Riddle which has strangly perplexed the Learned Jesuit Theophilus Raynaldus as well as le Cointe in his Annals of the Church of France But he is not the only Person that has oppos'd the Belief and Worship of the Church of Rome and is publickly ador'd by her I have another Author to produce who gives us so clear an Idea of the belief of this Diocess wherein he was born
of God which is daily offer'd up for our Salvation And if he be a Murtherer that takes away the Bodily Life from himself or his Neighbour he that robs himself or another of Eternal Life by what Name shall we call him We find in another Letter which he wrote to Wilderodâ—â— Bishop of Strasburg what work he makes with those false Decretals which were foisted in on purpose to make the whole Church submit to the Papal Yoak as if before Syricius all the East and West had belonged to the Papal Jurisdiction wherein he exactly follows the Foot-steps of Hincmar who confuted them with all his Might If we enquire into the rest of his Opinions we shall find that he did not believe that the Popes had received the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven in any other manner than all other Bishops See how he explains himself in a Discourse to Bishops when he was Bishop either of Rheims or Ravenna And as wo is me if I do not preach the Gospel or if I hide long in my Heart the Treasure that I have received burying it in the Ground or if I keep the Candle of the Divine Word cover'd under a Bushel and do not expose it on a Candlestick to the Eyes of all so likewise if I do not open the Locks of human Ignorance with those Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven which all of us who are Priests have received in the Person of St. Peter so that upon this account I may deserve according to my small measure to hear that Well done good and faithful Servant because thou hast been faithful over a few things I will set thee over many And again For so the Lord said to St. Peter Simon Peter lovest thou me and he Thou knowest Lord that I love thee And when he had ask'd this a third time and had been as often answered the Lord repeated a third time Feed my Sheep Which Sheep and which Flock St. Peter not only received at that time but also hath received them with us and all of us have received them with him He shews that he did not believe the necessity of the Priests Intention in the Sacraments when he saith in the same piece speaking to those that were guilty of Simony I do once more enquire of my Brother Bishop lest we should seem to have omitted any thing that belongs to a true Proof and Trial Who is it Brother Bishop that confers Episcopal Grace is it God or Man God without doubt but yet by Man Man lays on his Hand and God confers Grace the Priest serves God with his suppliant Hand and God blesseth with his powerful Right-hand The Bishop admits thee into the Order but God makes thee worthy of it O Justice O Equity If Money be given to a Man who in Ordination does no more but discharge a piece of Service laid upon him why is the whole denied to God who bestows the Order it self upon thee Doth it seem just to thee to honour the Servant whilst thou dost affront the Lord And whilst the Priest unrighteously takes Money shall God be injured by Man And seeing God expects nothing from thee for the Order bestowed upon thee why doth the Priest impudently look for Money God is willing to bestow it upon Man for nothing but the ravenous Bishop demands Money God of his Kindness and Love vouchsafes it for nought but the malicious Priest captivates him and ties him to Terms For what hast thou that thou hast not receiv'd And if thou have received it why dost thou boast as if thou hadst not received it Lastly We see in his 26 th Epistle the Confession of Faith that he makes which contains nothing besides the Symbol or the Apostles Creed to which he adds only what follows I do not forbid Marriage .... I do not condemn second Marriages I do not blame the eating of Flesh I own that reconciled Penitents ought to be admitted to the Communion I believe that in Baptism all Sins whether original or actual are forgiven and do profess that out of the Catholick Church no Body can be saved and I confirm and ratify the four holy Universal Synods which the Mother-Church confirms and approves of 'T is worth observing that he doth not speak one word concerning the Romish Traditions so far was he from authorizing the Definitions of the second Council of Nice which the Church of Rome hath been pleased to authorize in the Council of Trent Lastly We may take notice that Leuthericus Archbishop of Sens who died in the year 1032 had been the Disciple of this Gerbertus which is attested by the Continuator of Aimoinus and Clarius Monk of St. Peter le Vif at Sens has accused Leuthericus of having laid the Beginning and cast the Seeds of Berengarius's Heresy I don't believe any one will think strange that I have quoted Gerbertus amongst the Writers of Aquitain under pretence that probably he might have chang'd his Opinions after that he was elevated to the Papacy under the Name of Sylvester II. It is but too well known to be customary for those who us'd to speak according to their own Judgment and the Opinions of the Place where they were educated as soon as they have been elevated to the Papal Dignity to change their Notes Of this we have an illustrious Example in Aeneas Sylvius whom we find quite transform'd into another Man as soon as he had taken upon him the Name of Pius II. the Papal Diadem having chang'd him from White to Black And I am much mistaken if the 11 th Century doth not furnish us an Example every whit as remarkable in the Person of Gregory the 7 th who having been before Prior of the Monastry of Clugny the Customs whereof as I have hinted did not suit well with the Doctrine of Paschasius seems thence to have deriv'd his Opinions concerning the Eucharist for Vrspergensis takes notice that the Council of Bresse where he was deposed by 30 Bishops laid to his charge That he was of Berengarius's Opinion as being his antient Disciple and we shall find this Accusation not to be without ground if we cast our Eyes on his Commentary on St. Matthew of which I have elsewhere given an Extract Yet for all this we see that this Pope complying with his own Interest became afterwards one of the most furious Persecutors of Berengarius I suppose these few Remarks will be sufficient for my purpose tho I might add that St. Fulbert as well as Leutherick having been the Disciple of Gerbert had deriv'd the same Doctrine concerning the Eucharist from him this is so certain that a Doctor of the Sorbonne named Villiers found no other means about the beginning of this Century to make him speak to his mind in publishing of his Works than by inserting some Words in the Text which might make it to be look'd upon as the Objection of Hereticks whereas indeed it is an Answer of his own wherein he
Stick she put out the Eye of Stephen who had been her Confessor The second is an Action much resembling the course that is taken now adays to surprize Hereticks and to discover them for according to the Practice of the Inquisition we cannot find fault with the Method made use of by this Arefastus who feigned himself willing to become a Manichee that he might the better discover their Opinions It seems this Casuist of Chartres had not much studied St. Paul who tells us We ought not to do Evil that Good may come of it The third is The manner of their taking up the dead Body of Theodatus the Canon out of his Grave who died three years before and examining it by the trial of Water that they might be certain whether he was an Heretick when he was alive This is an Action well becoming this barbarous Age very like the Inquisitors and accordingly this was the compendious Method which St. Peter of Luxemburg put in practice for the trial and discerning of Hereticks I don't remember ever to have read any thing that might authorize this barbarous and extravagant Custom save only the second Canon of the 2 d Council of Sarragossa held in the year 592 where it is ordained That the Relicks which should be found in the Churches that had been possessed by the Arians should be carried to the Bishop that he might try them by Fire The Bishop of Meaux might have been as sensible of most of these things as we in perusing these Acts and then it would have been easy for him to judg whether the Authority of Vignier who simply relates what he met with in Historians did deserve to be pressed against us But it seems it was enough for him to delude his Reader and the Name of Vignier though otherwise he does not accuse these Persons of Manicheism seem'd to make for his purpose But whatsoever Judgment a Prudent Reader may pass on this Accusation of Manicheism upon which these Canons of Orleans were burnt in the year 1017 it will be easy for us to show that the Diocesses of Narbon and Aquitain where some of those Eastern Manichees took refuge did never quit the Faith or Worship of their Ancestors This is what we shall easily make out in the sequel of this Discourse Ademarus a Monk of St. Eparque at Limoges hath writ a Chronicle from the beginning of the French Monarchy until the year 1030 wherein he informs us what was the Faith of the Churches of Aquitain at the Beginning of the Eleventh Century 1. He relates without passing any Censure upon it the Synod held at Gentilly under Pepin about Images that are set up in Churches and shews that the Bishops of Aquitain assisted at the same and that they oppos'd themselves to the Church of Rome and to the Greeks 2. Though he grosly mistakes in his Chronology about the Age of Bede yet he makes it plain enough who they were whom he look'd upon as the Preservers of the true Theology He makes this Encomium of Rabanus A most Learned Monk the Master of Alcuinus for Bede taught Simplicius and Simplicius Rabanus whom the Emperor Charles sent for from beyond Sea and made a Bishop in France who instructed Alcuinus and Alcuinus informed Smaragdus Smaragdus again taught Theodulphus of Orleans and Theodulphus Elias a Scotchman Bishop of Angoulesm this Elias instructed Heiricus and Heiricus left two Monks Remigius and Vebaldus surnamed the Bald his Heirs in Philosophy This is a most convincing Proof of the Judgment of the Churches of Aquitain concerning the Controversies that Puschasius had kindled 1. We find here that they followed the Opinions of Bede whose Homilies Paulus Diaconus had inserted in his Collection for the use of the Pastors of Gaul together with those of St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom St. Augustin St. Maximus and several others Now the Opinions of Bede are diametrically opposite to those of the Church of Rome This has been formerly proved by a vast number of Passages I shall content my self with setting down one or two of them The first is upon the third Psalm where he extols the Patience of our Saviour to Judas because he did not exclude him from his most Holy Supper wherein saith he He delivered the Figure of his most sacred Body and Blood to his Disciples The second is upon the Evangelists in that part of them which speaks of the Institution of that Sacrament where he declares that because Bread strengthens the Body and Wine produceth Blood in the Flesh the Bread is mystically referr'd to the Body of Jesus Christ and the Wine to his Blood 2. They followed Alcuinus's Notions who had a great hand in all the Writings of Charlemain and especially in that concerning Images where we find also his Judgment concerning the Eucharist opposite to that of Paschasius 3. We find they followed the Opinions of Theodulphus Bishop of Orleans in whom we see a hundred things that are contrary to the Opinions of the present Church of Rome 4. They followed the Opinions of Rabanus Maurus whom Abbot Herigerus has cry'd down for maintaining that the Eucharistical Body of Jesus Christ goes to the Draught together with our other Food and whom one Waldensis in his Epistle to Martin placeth with Heribaldus amongst the number of those Hereticks who have dishonour'd Germany 5. Ademarus proves beyond contest that they did not adore the Eucharist in their Communion when on the one hand speaking of those of Narbon he saith That to prepare themselves to oppose the Mores of Corduba who had invaded their Coasts they received the Eucharist at the hands of their Priests without mentioning any Adoration paid to the Sacrament in so extream and threatning a Danger and on the other speaking of the Death of Earl William Whereupon saith he the Earl accepting of the Penance laid upon him by the Bishops and Abbots and disposing of all his Goods and particularly bequeathing his Estate and Honour amongst his Sons and his Wife he was reconciled and absolved and the whole time of Lent frequented Mass and Divine Worship till the Week before Easter when after he had received the holy Oil and Viaticum and ador'd and kiss'd the Cross he yielded up the Ghost in the Hands of the Bishop of Roan and his Priests after a very laudable Manner It is a thing singular and observable that this Earl pays his Adoration to the Cross though at the same time he forgets to worship the Sacrament which yet is the chief Object of Adoration Moreover We are to observe that the Latin word Adorare when spoken of the Cross imports only a Reverence which we own was practis'd on these Occasions long before this time because the Cross being no Image there was no fear of incurring the Sin of Idolatry in saluting of it This Count died in the year 1028. But since this Eleventh Century was in a manner wholly taken up by the Papists in opposing Berengarius
your Country in Sheeps Clothing being indeed a ravenous Wolf But according to the Hint given by our Lord we know him by his Fruits The Churches are without People People without Priests Priests without due Reverence and lastly Christians without Christ The Churches of Christ are looked upon as Synagogues the Sanctuary of God is denied to be holy Sacraments are no longer esteemed sacred holy Feasts are deprived of festival Solemnities Men die in their Sins Souls are frequently snatch'd away to appear before the terrible Tribunal who are neither reconciled by Repentance nor armed with the sacred Communion The Life of Christ is denied to Christian Infants by refusing them the Grace of Baptism nor are they suffered to draw near unto Salvation though our Saviour tenderly cries on their Behalf Suffer little Children to come unto me This Man is not of God who acts and speaks things so contrary to God and yet alas he is listned to by many and has a People that believe him O most unhappy People at the Voice of an Heretick all the Voices of the Prophets and Apostles are silenced who from one Spirit of Truth have declared that the Church is to be called by the Faith of Christ out of all the Nations of the World So that the Divine Oracles have deceived us the Eyes and Souls of all Men are deluded who see the same thing fulfilled which they read before to have been foretold which Truth though it be most manifest to all he alone by an astonishing and altogether Judaical Blindness either sees not or else is sorry to see it fulfilled and at the same time by I know not what Diabolical Art perswades the foolish and senseless People not to believe their own Eyes in a thing that is so manifest and that those that went before have deceived those that come after have been deceived that the whole World even after the shedding of Christ's Blood shall be lost and that all the Riches of the Mercies of God and the Grace of the Universe are devoted upon those alone whom he deceives Pope Eugenius finding things in this Posture names Albericus Bishop of Ostia for his Legat to the People of Tholouse and to the Count of St. Gilles Baronius in his Annals gives us an Account of this Henry the Disciple of Peter de Bruys and his Death in the Year 1147 which seems to be very exact because St. Bernard writ to the Count of St. Gilles to exhort him to drive Henry out of his Country where he preached his Doctrine very freely But the Earl died in the Holy Land having been poisoned there as it was said by the Queen Wherefore in the Year 1147 Henry suffered Martyrdom at the Sollicitation of St. Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux by the Cruelty of Albericus Bishop of Ostia Cardinal and Legate of Pope Eugenius II at Tholouse where he caused him to be burnt after they had brought him thither loaden with Irons Baronius sets down with great Care whatever he thought might blemish the Reputation of the Martyr He relates all that St. Bernard wrote against him to Aldephonsus Earl of St. Gilles He quotes St. Bernard who calls Henry an Apostate Monk and accuseth him of having made use of the great Talents he had in Preaching as a means to get Money to spend at Gaming and upon his Lusts He says that Henry was a Man defiled with Adulteries who for his frequent Crimes durst not appear in several Parts of France and Germany and who by Consequence was not to be indured in the Territories of the Count of St. Gilles but yet he doth not lay any thing of Manicheism to his Charge no more than Peter de Clugny and St. Bernard Nay Baronius does more for he formally distinguisheth him from those Hereticks whom St. Bernard opposed under the Name of Apostolicks in his 66 th Homily upon the Canticles How then could the Bishop of Meaux make a Manichee of him Perhaps the loose Life whereof St. Bernard accuseth him may be a Character of it But not to undervalue the Vanity of this loose Accusation without any Proof and proceeding from a sworn and cruel Enemy which was quite overthrown by the couragious Martyrdom of Henry At this rate the Clergy of the Church of Rome who were so generally guilty of Sodomy that St. Peter Damian writ a Book intituled Gomorrhaeus must have been Manichees and upon the same Ground Johannes Cremensis a Cardinal the Pope's Legate in England for abolishing the Marriage of the Priests must likewise have been a Manichee for the English Historians say that this Holy Cardinal having assembled a Synod at Westminster wherein he represented to the Priests that it was the worst of Crimes to rise from a Whore to consecrate the Body of Jesus Christ was himself surprized in Bed with a common Whore the same Day that he had said Mass Upon this Account also the Legats of Anacletus the Competitor of Eugenius II must have been Manichees for they are taxed with carrying Women along with them in Mens Habits probably to avoid the Inconvenience that Johannes Cremensis fell into in England for want of taking this Care before-hand They charge Henry with the same Heresies which they attributed to Peter de Bruys so that what I have already said concerning the Heresies of the Petrobusians I need not repeat here Baronius adds I confess that Henry had superadded to these Heresies this Proposition Additis irrideri Deum Canticis Ecclesiasticis That the Singing in Churches was but a mocking of God And accordingly Peter de Clugny refutes this pretended Heresy with a great deal of Earnestness But if I may speak my Opinion in this matter neither did this Proposition contain any great Crime For 1 st Singing in general was owned by Isidore as an Innovation It was about 70 Years before that the Popes had abolished the ancient Liturgies to substitute the Roman Liturgy The Gothick Liturgy which was used in the Diocess of Languedock and other neighbouring Diocesses which at that time depended on the Kings of Spain had been suppressed because it was not over-favourable to the Opinions of the Church of Rome 2 dly They had at the same time introduced a sort of riming Verses which they call Proses so ridiculous so foolish and so full of Novelties both as to the Worship of Saints and as to the fabulous Stories they contained that it was very difficult for those who looked for Wisdom in their Prayers not to take them for Profanations The Hymn composed by King Robert in Honour of Queen Constantia may give us an hint what sort of things they were O Constantia Martyrum c. And now let any one judg whether Henry was a Manichee because he condemned this sort of Profanations This also is what hath been owned by Mezeray in his Chronological Abridgment of the History of France printed at Amsterdam in 1673 where upon the Year 1163 he saith That there were two sorts of Hereticks
remain if so they must be in another Subject in the Air for Instance but if there then some part of the Air must be round savoury and white and as this Form is carried through divers places so the Accidents change their Subject Again these Accidents abide in the same part of the Air and thus Solidity will be in the Air because they are solid and consequently the Air will be solid Hence it appears that these Accidents are not in the Air neither are they in the Body of Christ neither can any other Body be assigned in which they are so that the Accidents do not seem to remain Again when the Form or Figure in which the Body of Christ lieth hid is divided into Parts the Body of Christ continues no longer in that Figure which it had before how therefore can the Body of Christ be in every part of that Host Again if the Body of Christ be hid in that little form where is the Head or Foot and consequently his Members must be indistinguish'd Again Christ gave his Body to his Disciples before his Passion Now he gave it them either mortal or immortal if he gave it immortal yet it is certain that then it was mortal and consequently whilst it was mortal it was immortal which is impossible Again suppose we that some one or other had celebrated the Communion at the time that Christ suffered the Body that was suppose at Rome would have suffered there because wheresoever it was it suffered at the time of the Passion and so Christ would have suffered not only at Jerusalem but in many other places Again suppose that a Mouse should come to the Pix in which the Body of Christ is and eat some part of it the Mouse would eat either Air or Accidents or the Body of Christ but it is absurd to say that the Mouse should eat either Air or Accidents and much more absurd it is to say that it eats the Body of Christ Again Seeing that the Blood of Christ is glorified and does not fill a Place it seems to follow that when the Cup is full of Blood some other Liquor may be poured into it Again Christ saith in the Gospel whatsoever enters in at the Mouth is cast forth into the Draught whence it will follow that the Body of Christ doth not go in at the Mouth when it is given to be eaten or if it does it must be cast forth into the Draught In the 59 th Chapter he relates this Objection of the Albigenses concerning the same Matter Quaerunt etiam Haeretici utrum sit Articulus fidei Christianae panem transubstantiari in Corpus Christi cum de hoc non fiat mentio in aliquo Symbolo non enim in Symbolo Apostolico scilicet Credo in Deum vel in Nicaeno Credo in Unum c. vel in Symbolo Athanasii Quicunque vult c. Cum in his Symbolis de omnibus Articulis Christianae fidei fiat mentio cur non fiat mentio de illo ineffabili Sacramento cui magis videtur obviare humanae Ratio The Hereticks also demand whether it be an Article of the Christian Faith that the Bread is transubstantiated into the Body of Christ seeing there is no mention made of it in any Creed for we do not meet with it in the Apostles Creed that is Credo in Deum nor in the Nicene that is Credo in Vnum nor in the Athanasian Quicunque vult and since in these Creeds are contained all the Articles of the Christian Faith why is there no mention of this ineffable Sacrament which of all things seems most contrary to Reason I have set down these Arguments in order 1 st because it is visible to any one that will take the pains to examine them that they are the same that were urged by Berengarius as appears by the Extracts of his Book which Lanfrank has preserv'd and afterwards by those who in the 12 th Century endeavour'd to qualify and defend the Absurdities of the Confession which they made Berengarius sign 2 dly Because it plainly appears that those who admitted the three Creeds the Apostles the Nicene and the Athanasian did not reject the use of Matrimony which yet he lays to their charge there being nothing more remote from Manicheism Neither doth he impute it save only to some of these Hereticks which makes it manifest that he hath confounded all these People together and that he only pursued his Matter and his common Places without giving us particularly the Opinions of every one of these Hereticks We find that he charges them with rejecting the Sacrament of Confirmation because there is no mention made of it neither in the Gospel nor in the other Books of the New Testament as an Institution of Christ They rejected also the Sacrament of Orders as it was believed in the Church of Rome See what Alanus saith of it Dicunt etiam fidei Catholicae inimici Ordinem ut Diaconatum vel Sacerdotium non esse Sacramentum quod sic probare conantur Non legitur in aliquâ Canonicâ Scripturâ Apostolos ordinatos fuisse in Sacerdotes cur ergo corum Vicarios sic ordinari oportet Item Apostoli qui majores Sacerdotes dicti sunt non leguntur uncti fuisse Chrismate cur ergo unguntur eorum Vicarii Praeterita merita faciunt suffragantur ut quis sit dignus aliquo Officio quid ergo confert Ordo Besides the Adversaries of the Catholick Faith affirm that the Order of Deacons or Priests is not a Sacrament which they endeavour to prove thus We do not read in any part of Canonical Scripture that the Apostles were ordained Priests and therefore what necessity is there that their Vicars should be so Again The Apostles who are said to be the higher Priests were never anointed and why then are their Vicars anointed It is forepast Merit and true Worth that makes one fit for any Function what need therefore is there of Orders Concerning extream Unction they believe after this manner Dicunt etiam extremam olei Vnctionem quae datur infirmis nec esse Sacramentum nec aliquem habere effectum quia hoc Sacramentum Vnctionis infirmorum ab Apostolis institutum non legitur They say that Extream Unction which is conferr'd upon sick Persons is neither a Sacrament nor otherwise of any efficacy because this Sacrament of Anointing the Sick is not found to be of Apostolical Institution As to Churches we find that they follow'd the Opinions of Henry the Disciple of Peter de Bruis Non desunt qui dicant locum materialem non esse Ecclesiam sed conventum fidelium sanctum quia ut aiunt locus ad orationem non pertinet sicut enim ubique est Deus sic ubique adorari vel orari potest Hoc autem probare nituntur Authoritate Christi dicentis Samaritanae Mulier crede mihi venit hora quando nec in Monte hoc nec in
Hierosolymis adorabitis Patrem Sed venit hora nunc est quando veri adoratores adorabunt in Spiritu Veritate Item Si locus facit ad Orationem cur Heremitae antiquitus in locis abditis habitantes Ecclesias non habebant Cur etiam Sacramenta effectum suum habent etsi non celebrantur in loco qui dicitur Ecclesia Item quid operantur Parietes ad supplicandum ei qui ubique est cum in uno loco non magis sit quam in alio Christum etiam in montibus locis desertis legimus orasse non in locis orationi dedicatis Item estne fructuosior oratio quae fit in Templo quam illa quae fit in agro si par fuerit devotio There be some who affirm that the Church is not a material Place but an holy Assembly of Believers for say they Place is not of any concern to Prayer because as God is every where so he may every where be worship'd and pray'd to This they endeavour to prove by the Authority of Christ saying to the Samaritan Woman Woman believe me the hour comes when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor at Jerusalem worship the Father but the hour comes and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth Again If the Place be any furtherance to Prayer why had not the Hermits of old who liv'd in desert Places their Churches to pray in Or how can the Sacraments be of any efficacy when they are not celebrated in the Place call'd a Church Again What do Walls help us to pray to him who is every where and not more in one Place than he is in another We read also that Christ went aside to Mountains and desert Places to pray and not to Places appointed for Prayer Again Is the Prayer that is perform'd in the Church of more efficacy than that which is offer'd up in the Field supposing the Devotion of both to be alike Against the Prayers that are made to Saints they objected as follows Dicunt etiam Heretici quidam Orationes Sanctorum non prodesse vivis nec vivorum orationes mortuis probare etiam videntur quod Sancti non orant pro vivis qui sciunt qui sint salvandi vel damnandi pro illis autem quos sciunt salvandos non orant quia superflua esset eratio quia sive orent sive non salvabuntur Si vero orarent pro damnatis non assequerentur quod petunt ita beati non essent beatus enim est cui omnia optata succedunt Item Quilibet judicabitur secundum opera sua non aliena merita nec pro alienis meritis reddetur ei ideo orationes Sanctorum non prosunt vel quantum ad meritum vel quantum ad praemium quia non augent merita vel praemia Item Sancti non sunt in loco merendi sed recipiendi ergo orationibus nec aliis bonis merentur sibi vel aliis Item In Evangelio Lucae legitur Quod Abraham dixit animae Divitis quae erat in inferno Magnum Chaos firmatum est inter nos vos ubi Chaos nihil aliud vocavit nisi dissimilitudinem bonorum malorum tantam ut etiam sancti damnatis non compatiantur Si vero non compatiantur nec orant pro eis Some Hereticks also assert that the Prayers of Saints are of no use to the Living nor those of the Living to the Dead That the Saints do not pray for the Living they prove thus Because the Saints knowing who shall be saved and who damned they can not pray for those they know shall be saved since their Prayers would be superfluous seeing whether they pray or no they will be saved but should they pray for those that shall be damned they would not obtain what they pray for and so would not be happy for he is only happy who has all his Desires Again Every one shall be judged according to his Works and not according to the Merits of another neither shall any Man receive according to the Merits of other Men and therefore the Prayers of the Saints profit nothing either in regard of Merit or Reward because they cannot encrease either a Man's Merit or Reward Again The Saints are not in a Place where they can merit but only where they receive and therefore by their Prayers or other good Works can neither merit any Good for themselves or for others Again We read in the Gospel of St. Luke that Abraham said to the Soul of the rich Man that was in Hell There is a great Gulf fixed between us and you where by Gulf he means nothing else but the Disagreement there is between the Good and the Wicked which is so great that the Saints are neither sensible nor have any compassion for the Damned now if so neither can we suppose that they pray for them At last He attributes to some of them the Belief that it is unlawful to eat Flesh upon very ridiculous Grounds but such as have nothing common with the Doctrine of the Manichees It seems to me to be evident from this Book of Alanus 1 st That he owned there were several sorts of Hereticks in the Country of the Albigenses Manichees or Cathari who rejected the principal Articles of the Christian Religion 2 dly Another sort of People who renounced all the chief Doctrines of the Romish Religion which the Protestants rejected afterwards And since he quotes no Author in particular it is obvious to judg that he made but small Distinction of the Nature of the several Objections which he pretends to refute and which he had frequently assigned to the Albigenses in general which without doubt ought not to be attributed but to some of them and which possibly and very probably too was only taken up from the Mouths of the common People amongst them by those who had a Design to expose them CHAP. XVII The Calumnies raised against the Albigenses refuted by the Conference at Montreal THose who will reflect a little upon the Innocence of the Primitive Christians and the horrid Slanders cast upon them will not be much surpriz'd to see the Innocence of the Albigenses attack'd after the same manner The Devil having found this Method succeed in the first Beginnings of Christianity was not so careless of his Interest to forget to employ the same against those who opposed themselves to the Corruptions which he had introduced and which he was willing to substitute instead of the Religion of Jesus Christ He made use of the same Method against those of the Reformed Religion Whoever reads the Writings of the Jesuits shall find that they have accused our Reformers of the same Heresies which the Devil rais'd to put a stop to the progress of Christianity The Jesuit Gauthier alone may be a sufficient Witness hereof in his Chronological Table and we may well say that in this Point he hath at least equaliz'd the Impudence of
Feuardentius if he hath not out done him Why should any Man therefore think strange that the Church of Rome and her Adorers should take the same course against the Albigenses which she practis'd in our days and which she hath not yet left because she believ'd it would not fail of certain Success so prodigious is the Stupidity of the People of her Communion And truly the Managers for the Church of Rome were no less diligent to employ these devilish Artifices against the Albigenses than against us Here are some Instances of it for it is impossible to relate all I begin with some of the more general Articles 1. They accused them of Novelty sometimes supposing them to have been only known since the time of Peter de Bruis or of Henry his Disciple though the contrary be evident from the History of this Church as we have set it down and by the Publick Liturgy which the Papists themselves have published not long since 2. They accused them of being the Disciples of Peter Waldo and from thence rais'd this Accusation that they were only a Company of Lay-men without either Ministry or right to administer the Sacraments whereas it is certain that they had a lawful Ministry and indeed a thousand times more lawful than that of the Church of Rome 3. They accused them in general of being Manichees perhaps because formerly the Priscillianists who were a Branch of the Manichees had had a Party in that Province or near it as Philastrius tells us and of whom some were scattered through Languedock after the year 1010 though indeed the Albigenses disputed against them and solidly confuted them as we are informed by William Puylaurens 4. They endeavour'd to make them own the Opinions and Crimes that were proper to the Manichees by producing false Witnesses to convict them thereof We have an illustrious Example of this in the History of the Earls of Tholouse William Catel Counsellor for the King in the Parliament of Tholouse tells us that two Hereticks whereof the one was called Raymond the other Bennet having appear'd before the Pope's Legate it was witness'd against them that they had been heard to preach that there were two Gods the one good and the other evil that Priests could not consecrate the Holy Host that married Persons could not be saved if they had to do with their Wives that Baptism is not necessary to Infants and many other Heresies which they would never acknowledg notwithstanding all the Witnesses that appear'd against them but said they were false Witnesses and that they believed what the Catholick Religion engageth us to believe But notwithstanding these their solemn Protestations they further object against them all the Consequences of Manicheism as natural Inferences from the former Opinions of which they pretended that they had convicted them by Witnesses This probably was the rise of those fine Controversies we find in Alanus Magnus and other Polemical Writers who copied him 5. They have been charged with forswearing themselves before a Court of Justice without scruple though at the same time they are accused for maintaining that every Lie is a mortal Sin This is done by Alanus who falls upon them very heavily upon that account 6. They are accused of being Arians though Alanus distinguisheth them and that the Popish Priests ought rather to be accused of favouring Manicheism and Arianism than the Albigenses who subtilly disputed against these Heresies But it will be easy to refute these Calumnies by the Conference of Montreal in the year 1206 related by the Monk of Vaux Cernay It was offer'd to the Bishops by the Albigenses under certain Conditions That there should be Moderators appointed on both sides Men of Authority able to hinder any Tumult or Sedition Also that the Place where the Conference was to be might be free and safe for all those that should assist at it Moreover that the Subjects to be disputed upon should be agreed to by joint consent and not to be quitted till they were wholly discuss'd and that those that could not maintain their Opinions by the Word of God should be look'd upon as overcome The Bishops and Monks accepted of all these Conditions The Place they agreed upon was Montreal near Carcasson in the year 1206 the Moderators agreed on on both sides were B. of Villeneufve and B. of Auxerre for the Bishops and for the Albigenses R. de Bot and Anthony Riviere Arnoldus Hot the Pastor of the Albigenses accompanied with those that were thought fit for this Action appear'd first at the Place and Time assigned and afterwards came the Bishop of Ozma and the Monk Dominic a Spaniard with two of the Pope's Legats Peter Castel and Radulphus de Lust Abbot of Candets P. Bertrand Prior of Anterive as also the Prior of Palat and several other Priests and Monks The Theses propounded by Arnoldus were That the Mass and Transubstantiation were the Invention of Men and not the Ordinance of Jesus Christ or his Apostles That the Church of Rome was not the Spouse of Christ but the Church of Confusion drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs That the Polity of the Church of Rome was neither good nor holy nor established by Jesus Christ Arnaud sent these Propositions to the Bishop who demanded a Fortnight to prepare his Answer which was granted At the Day appointed the Bishop fail'd not to appear with a large Writing whereupon Arnaud Hot desired leave to be heard upon the Spot extempore declaring that he would answer all the Particulars contained in the said Writing desiring the Auditors not to be tired if he took up some time in answering so long a Discourse they promised he should be heard with Attention and Patience without the least Interruption He discoursed at several Hours for four days together with so much Admiration of the Assistants and Dexterity on his Part that all the Bishops Abbots Monks and Priests could have been willing to have been farther off for he deduced his Answer according to the several Points laid down in that Writing with so much Order and Perspicuity that he made his Auditors perceive that though the Bishop had writ much yet he had concluded nothing that could be made use of to the Advantage of the Church of Rome against these Propositions This done Arnaud demanded that since the Bishops and he stood ingaged to one another at the beginning of their Conference to prove their Assertions by the Word of God alone the Bishops and Priests might be commanded to prove the Authority of the Mass as it was sung in Churches piece by piece that it was instituted by the Son of God and sung in the same manner by his Apostles beginng at the Introit as they call it to the Ite missa est but the Bishops could not prove that any of those Parts had been instituted for that Purpose by Christ or by his Apostles Here it was that the Bishops were covered with Shame and Regret for Arnaud
had reduced them to the single Canon which they pretended was the best Piece of the Mass where he proved that the Holy Supper of the Lord was not the Mass saying that if the Mass were the Lord's Supper there would be all after Consecration that there was before in the Lord's Supper Whereas said he in your Mass there is no Bread for by Transubstantiation the Bread vanisheth wherefore the Mass being without Bread cannot be the Supper of the Lord wherein all know there is Bread Jesus Christ brake Bread Saint Paul brake Bread the Priest breaks the Body not Bread therefore the Priest neither doth what Jesus Christ nor what St. Paul did As Arnaud was about to proceed in these Antitheses between the Lord's Supper and the Mass to prove that it was neither of Christ's nor of the Apostles Institution the Monks Bishops Legats and Priests thought fit to withdraw themselves being resolved to hear no more for fear they might fix Impressions on those that were by which might extreamly shake their Belief of the Mass The Monk of Vaux Cernay indeavoured to render this Action suspected in saying that when these heretical Judges perceived the Weakness of their Cause and the Misfortune of ingaging in such a Dispute they refused to pronounce any Judgment concerning it as likewise to restore us our own Writings for fear adds he they might come to be published but restored the Hereticks theirs But how could two of the Pope's Legats and so many Bishops Abbots Monks and Priests suffer themselves to be drawn into a Place there to be thus abused and trick'd The Monk himself saith in the same place that the Heads of the Hereticks came to meet with the Catholicks at the Castle of Montreal to dispute with them the Catholicks therefore were in Possession of the Castle there could be therefore no Opportunity of foul Play nor of any such Violence neither was it necessary that the Moderators should pronounce their Judgment in a Case of Dispute seeing they hold that no other Judgment is necessary but that of the Pope who cannot err Besides how could this Monk know that the Albigenses were overcome seeing that no Sentence was given Perrin could have given us a faithful Extract of this Conference because himself observes that it had been brought to him from the Albigenses by Mr. Rafur Minister of the Church of Montreal in an old Manuscript From whence though he doth not express it in so many Words I judg that he reduced the Points in Question between the Albigenses and the Church of Rome to six Articles I. Article The Doctrines which they asserted in opposition to the Church of Rome were That the Church of Rome was not the Holy Church nor the Spouse of Christ but that it was a Church which had drunk in the Doctrine of Devils the Whore of Babylon which St. John describes in the Revelations the Mother of Fornications and Abominations covered with the Blood of the Saints II. That the Mass was neither instituted by Christ nor his Apostles but a humane Invention III. That the Prayers of the Living are unprofitable for the Dead IV. That the Purgatory maintained in the Church of Rome is no better than a human Invention to satisfy the Avarice of the Priests V. That the Saints ought not to be prayed unto VI. That Transubstantiation is a human Invention and erroneous Doctrine and that the worshipping of the Bread is manifest Idolatry That therefore it was necessary to separate from the Church of Rome in which the contrary was said and taught because one cannot assist at the Mass without partaking of the Idolatry there practised nor expect Salvation by any other means than by Jesus Christ nor transfer to Creatures the Honour which is due to the Creator nor say concerning the Bread that it is God and worship it as such without incurring the Pain of eternal Damnation because Idolaters shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven For all these things therefore which they asserted they have been hated and persecuted to Death This Account of the Conference of Montreal which I have copied from Perrin is enough in my Judgment fully to refute any Scruple that might remain in the Mind of a Reader who reads in Roger Hoveden the Letters of Peter Cardinal of St. Chrysogon writ in the Year 1178 which testify that the Manichees of Tholouse had been convicted by the Confession which many of them had made of the greatest part of the Articles of that Heresy It is very visible that it was upon the Authority of these Letters or upon some Informations of this Nature that Alanus who was born at Lisle in Flanders and who had spent the greatest part of his time at the University of Paris has built his Catalogue of the Heresies which he refutes in his Treatise against the Albigenses whereof I have given an Extract in the foregoing Chapter So that it is necessary to suppose one of these three things Either that the Earl Raymond of Tholouse and those whom he protected were really Manichees as they are accused to be by the Pope's Legats by the Bishops and by Peter of Vaux Cernay who sets down this Accusation and the forced Confessions of the Albigenses who own themselves to be Manichees or that the Albigenses who were the Disciples of Peter de Bruys and of Henry that were no Manichees had gone over to that Sect towards the End of the 12 th Century and afterwards again become Petrobusians and Henricians at the Beginning of the 13 th as it plainly appears they then were from the Conference of Montreal where they freely proposed their Opinions intirely opposite to Manicheism or that the Legats and Monks that persecuted them with Fire and Sword were great Impostors in taking Advantage against them from some Confessions extorted from Manichees who were here and there scattered in those Diocesses and which they made use of to animate the People of the Roman Communion and to ingage the Princes and Bishops of all places to exterminate without Mercy a sort of People who utterly subverted all the Rules of Morality which is the Band of Society and all the Principles of both natural and Christian Religion CHAP. XVIII Reflections on the Convictions of Manicheism which were said to be proved upon the Albigenses ONE of the most plausible Objections that can be made against the Purity of the Faith of the Albigenses is the Testimony of the Inquisitors who have filled their Trials with plain Confessions which several Albigenses judged and condemned by them have made of sundry Errors of the Manichees I shall produce an Extract of the Acts of the Inquisition of Tholouse which are in the Hands of Mr. Wetstein Bookseller at Amsterdam as it was sent me out of Holland and which was made by a Man of great Reputation The Albigenses saith he held some Opinions in common with the Vaudois as That to a Christian all Oaths are unlawful that the Confession of Sins made
they all sound for the Churches Gain 1. See what he saith of the Pope's Authority In Constantine's time the Priesthood was removed and it was not decreed that the Bishop of that Church should necessarily have a Primacy over all others as is here supposed Neither do I believe that any Catholick is so foolish as to believe that when Christ's Vicar writes Let it be done and he who spake the Word and all things were made doth not approve of it he hath any Right to command because of him alone it can be said with Truth So I will and so I command let my Will stand instead of Reason And accordingly he was condemned by the Council of Constance for believing That it is ridiculous to suppose the Pope to be the Highest Priest and that Christ never approved of any such Dignity neither in Peter nor in any one else 2. Of the Power which the Popes assume to themselves over the Temporalities of Kings Wicklef wrote a particular Treatise intituled De Civili Dominio to overthrow their Claims where he speaks thus In Civil Power there cannot be two Lords of equal Authority the one must be principal and the other subordinate We will not subject our King in this matter to him when he bestowing any Mortmain reserves to himself the capital Dominion 3. He did not believe the Pope's Infallibility The Pope may sin as Head of the Church He may sin by Nature having a capital Lord above him There is no doubt but that an Error may be committed in the Election of a Pope and yet more in his following Conversation He may err in Feeding the Churches or in Articles of the Faith Many Popes have been corrupted with heretical Pravity He believed it was probable That all the Bishops of Rome for 300 Years and more before his time were fully Hereticks 4. He made no Difficulty of saying that the Pope was the chiefest Antichrist 1. Wicklef informs us what his Thoughts were of the Church of Rome when he saith It is possible that the Lord Pope may be ignorant of the Law of Scripture and the Church of England may be far truer in her Judgment of Catholick Truth than the whole Church of Rome that is made up of the Pope and Cardinals 2. He maintains that the Church of Rome may err but that this doth not hinder but that the Purity of Doctrine may be preserved in the Catholick Church It is necessary says he That the Catholick Faith be in the whole Mother-Church 3. He did not believe that wicked Men were true Members of the Church and censures those who teach that Men who shall be damned are notwithstanding Members of the Church so joining Christ and the Devil They teachen together saith he that tho Men that shall be damned be Members of Holy Church and thus they wedden Christ and the Devil together he saith that unbelieving and ungodly Men are in the Holy Church by Body not by Thought by Name not by Deed in Number not by Merit As to the Doctrine of Justification it is very plain that he was not of the Opinion of the Church of Rome as these Words shew The Merit of Christ is of it self sufficient to redeem every Man from Hell 't is to be understood of a Sufficiency of it self without any other concurring Cause All that follow Christ being justified by his Righteousness shall be saved as his Offspring He rejects the Doctrine of the Merit of Works and falls upon those which say That God did not all for them but think that their Merits help Heal us Lord for nought that is no Merit of ours but for thy Mercy Lord not to us but to thy Mercy give thy Ioy. As for what concerns the Lord's Supper we find that this great Man did not believe Transubstantiation See how he expresses himself This Bread is fairly truly and really spiritually virtually and sacramentally the Body of Christ as St. John the Baptist was figuratively Elias and not personally As Christ is both God and Man at once so the consecrated Host is the Body of Christ and true Bread at the same time because it is the Body of Christ at least in a Figure and true Bread in its Nature or which signifies the same thing it is true Bread naturally and the Body of Christ figuratively He constantly affirmed that this Doctrine lasted in the Church for a thousand Years till Sathanas was unbound and the People blinded by Friars with the Heresy of Accidents without Subjects 1. He owned but two Sacraments as appears by the 45 th 46 th 47 th and 48 th Articles condemned at Oxford and in the Council of Constance 2. He was against the Use of Chrism in Baptism 3. He maintained that extream Unction was not a Sacrament If corporal Unction were a Sacrament as now is pretended Christ and his Apostles would not have been wanting to declare it to the World 4. His Opinion concerning Confirmation as it is practised amongst the Papists he expresseth thus As for the Oil wherewith the Bishops anoint Children and the linnen Coif that covers the Head it seems to be a vain Ceremony that can have no Foundation in Scripture and that this Confirmation being introduced without any Apostolical Authority is Blasphemy against God 1. He declam'd against the Use of Images with great Earnestness We ought to preach saith he against the Costliness Beautifulness and other Arts of cheating wherewith we impose upon Strangers rather to pick their Pockets than for the Propagation of Christ's Religion The Devil by his Falshood deludes many who sometimes suppose a Miracle to have been wrought when indeed it was nothing but a Cheat. The Poison of Idolatry lies hid in continued Imagination 2. One may see how he distinguisheth Sins Some Sins are called little Sins in comparison of greater and venial because God's Son forgives them 3. He did not own the Necessity of Auricular Confession Vocal Confession made to the Priest introduc'd by Innocent is not so necessary If a Man be truly contrite all outward Confession is superfluous and unprofitable to him 4. He wrote against the Doctrine of Satisfaction The present Pope has reason to blush for the modern Penance established by him without any Ground since it is not lawful for any Mortals no not for the Apostles themselves to make the Law of God difficult beyond what he himself hath limited 5. His Judgment concerning Pardons and Indulgences he expresseth in these Words It is a foolish thing to rely upon the Indulgences of the Pope and the Bishops 6. He gives this Rule concerning Fasting In Works of Humanity we must follow Christ by doing such Works as bear some Proportion with his We must fast 40 Days from Sin and as far as is possible to