to the Priests of the Church of Rome is wholly unprofitable and that neither the Pope nor any one else in the Romish Church can absolve any Man of Sin but that they have power to absolve all those from their Sins who will join themselves to their Sect by the Laying on of Hands This last Clause is also laid to the charge of the Vaudois viz. That they have Power from God alone as the Apostles had to hear Confessions both of Men and Women that believe them and of imposing Penance upon such as confess to them as Fasting and several Repetitions of the Lord's Prayer whereupon they absolve their Penitents and that this Absolution and Penance is as available to the Salvation of their Souls as if they had been confessed to their own Priest That here is some wresting or mutilation of the Opinion of the Vaudois is manifest from the Confession of a certain Woman who as we read declared her Faith to this purpose That God alone forgives Sin and that he to whom Confession of Sins is made gives only his Advice what the Person ought to do and so enjoins Penance which any wise and prudent Man may do whether he be a Priest or no. That the Opinions of the Albigenses that were proper to them were that there be two Lords the one Good and the other Evil That the Body of Christ is not in the Eucharist but only meer Bread That Baptism is of no use One of the Albigenses was said to believe that the Baptism of Water celebrated by the Church stands Infants in no stead because they did not consent to the Sacrament but cried at the receiving of it I believe saith he who examined these Acts that they denied Baptism to be the Instrument of Regeneration or perhaps they might be against Infant-Baptism That an external Anointing of the Sick with material Oil was of no use That the Orders of the Church of Rome had no Power of binding and loosing since they themselves who conferred them were great Sinners That Marriage is always join'd with Sin and never can be without Sin and that it could never have been instituted by the good God That our Lord did not assume a real humane Body and true Flesh of our Nature and that he did not truly but only in Likeness rise again in the same and perform the other Works of our Salvation and that he never really ascended to the right-hand of the Father They deny the Resurrection of the Body but in the Declaration of Petrus Anterius a chief Teacher amongst them this is more clearly and distinctly explained that they feign that certain spiritual Bodies and a certain internal Man should rise again in such sort of Bodies And elsewhere they express themselves that though the Souls of Men shall come to Judgment yet they shall not come in their own Bodies They said that the Souls of Men were Spirits which fell from Heaven for their Sins so that they seem to have believ'd the pre-existence of Souls Man they say must not worship what he eats Moreover it is ascribed to them that they believe Man is saved by the Laying on of Hands which they confer on their Believers and that by the same means all Sins are forgiven without Confession and Satisfaction That they can bestow the Holy Ghost for Salvation upon those whom they receive That the Virgin Mary never was a carnal Woman but their Church which they say is true Repentance and that this is the Virgin Mary The very Obscurity of these Words shews that this Opinion is wrested because it is better exprest in another place thus That God never entred the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that he only is the Mother Brother and Sister of God who keeps the Commandments of God the Father These are said to be the Doctrines of the Albigenses whereof none are ascribed to the Waldenses but others different from these whereof we find no mention made in the Opinions of the Albigenses and they are these That all Judgment is forbid by God and that it is contrary to the divine Prohibition for any Judg in any Cause whatsoever to judg or sentence any Man to Punishment or Death That Indulgencies granted by the Prelats of the Church of Rome are of no use or efficacy That there is no Purgatory for Souls after this Life and that consequently the Prayers and Suffrages of Believers for the Dead are of no use to them That the Soul when it departs from the Body goes either to Paradise or Hell That there are no more than three Orders in the Church of Bishops Priests and Deacons From these Acts it appears how much the Rites and Ceremonies of the Albigenses differed from those practis'd by the Vaudois Besides saith the Author of the Extract the Rites and Institutions of them both were very different Of the Albigenses there were two Sorts some who professed their Faith and Rites and they were called perfect or comforted others who had entred into a Covenant with the former Sort called Perfect which they call la Convenenza the Agreement that at the end of their Life they should be received by them into their Sect. This Reception is frequently called by them Exercise and is performed in this manner The Benedicite or the Blessing conferred upon one Molinerius when he was sick Bernard Goes one of the Albigenses held the Hands of the sick Person between his own Hands and besides held a certain Book over him wherein he read the Gospel of St. John In the Beginning was the Word and deliver'd to the sick Person a fine Thread to tie about him as a Mark that he was admitted into their Heresy upon some others it is said that they laid a white Linen Cloath and besides that many Genuflections were performed by the Bed-side This Reception was supposed to save the Soul of him who was received and was call'd a Spiritual Baptism or Consolation a Reception and a good End and sometimes a Melioration by means of which they believ'd that the Person was sanctified so that it was not lawful for a Woman to touch any one that was thus received Now because it might sometime happen that the Person thus received after his recovery might relapse into his former Defilements therefore they always deferr'd this Reception till the extreamest Weakness when there was no longer hopes of Life for fear they might afterward lose the Good they had received For which reason also some sick Persons amongst them though the Person who thus initiated them was already come yet were not received because they were not believed to be at the point of Death But they who were thus received in their Sickness were commanded to put themselves upon Hardship that is to hasten their own Death by abstaining from all Meat and there are several Examples of those who are said to have kill'd themselves not only with Fasting but by opening of a Vein wounding of themselves yea 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
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