ture of abstract argument with personal persuasion as indi- we compass him on all sides; we beleaguer his very soulcates the writer's desire to deal reasonably with whoever throw open the "keep" of his heart, and leave him no chance would listen to reason. Five-sixths of the whole composi- of maintaining his concealment. If Paul may not be known tion is calm explanation of facts, or adduction of evidence. from his two letters to Timothy, and that to Titus, no writer But this is not the style of offended pride, when it rankles in can at all be judged of from the records he has left of himself. the bosom of an intemperate and irritated dignitary. The genuineness of these letters is abundantly established, Yet the main feature of the epistle to the Galatians is the and by the best sort of proof. No one competent to estimate breadth of the practical principles it supports, and the oppo- literary evidence can even pretend to doubt of it. Moreover sition it offers to the bigotry, superstition, and spiritual pride they were composed (the last of them especially) very near of the Jewish teachers. If Paul be vehement, it is always the close of the writer's apostolic course, and when his mind in behalf of common sense and liberality: if he be indignant, had admitted all the influence it could admit from the system it is when he mantles to break the chain of spiritual despo- to which his life had been devoted. They were addressed tism: if he be stern, it is to uphold consistency. Even Pe- too, to subordinates in office; yet to men endeared and familiar ter, he "withstood to the face," on account of culpable com- by community in labours and sufferings. What forbids us pliances with Jewish sanctimoniousness. The obsolete sys-then-what rule of historic evidence, acknowledged as valid, tem of national seclusion he discards, by affirming that now, forbids us to assume these same letters as CONCLUSIVE PROOF within the Christian Church, all extrinsic distinctions are in a question concerning the quality and tendency of Christimerged. "There is neither Greek nor Jew, there is neither anity in its first stage?

bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for all are Let now some speculative reasoner come up, and say-one in Christ Jesus." That superstition too, which waits "The view that is presented in the New Testament of the only an accidental excitement to kindle into virulent fanati-moral condition of mankind, and of the doom of the impenicism, he treats with objurgation and contempt. "How turn tent, and of the agency or interference of evil spirits, cannot ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereto ye de- but have a pernicious or malign influence over the human sire again to be in bondage! Ye observe days, and months, mind." In rebutting any such hypothetical objection we and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bes- should instantly turn from theory to fact, and reply-If the towed upon you labour in vain ?" "Stand fast in the liberty supposition were indeed well founded, it is certain that the wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled learned zealot of Tarsus must have fully received upon the again with the yoke of bondage." "In Christ Jesus, neither sensitive surface of his native character any such fanatical circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but excitement, and it is certain too, that a thirty or forty years of faith, which worketh by love." And yet this liberty was not injurious treatment would so have aggravated and fixed whatlibertinism. "Use not your liberty for an occasion to the ever was bad in his natural temper, that his last letters would flesh; but by love serve one another." "Walk in the Spirit, verily have reeked with venom. But is it so in fact? Let and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." these letters say. Must we not acknowledge that, how sad But this is that very style of sound sense and moderation, and appalling soever may be the truths on the ground of which and that GENERALIZATION OF PRINCIPLES, WITHOUT LAXITY, the Gospel proceeds, or on which it builds its superstructure which so grievously offends the imbecile pietist, the scrupu- of mercy-the efficacious motives it brings in upon the human lous bigot, and the virulent fanatic. It is the style of Paul; mind are far more than enough to correct the gloomy influence and his invariable use of it carries forward our present argu- of those facts, and do actually avail to produce the most perment toward a triumphant issue. fect examples of gentleness, meekness, and universal goodIII. The four epistles to individuals-especially the three will; aye, and to engender this bland philanthropy even upon that are clerical or official, demand to be reviewed. an intemperate spirit!

Our evidence on this point has a more extended consequence than may at first appear, and is such as to justify the share of attention now claimed for it.

The question in hand might, with very little hazard-perhaps with none, be made to rest upon the solitary evidence of the epistle to Philemon. If we knew nothing more of the writer's temper than what breaks upon us through the tender- These valedictory letters (for we may so deem them) in ness and grace of this short letter (and were informed also the first place prove, what before we have alleged, that the that the same person had commenced his course as a san- mildness of the apostle's character, such as it appears in the guinary zealot) the proof would be complete, that the system greater part of his writings, was not the consequence of a under which his character had been matured, must have been prostration of his native vigour, or an enfeebling of that conof the most benign sort. No such inconsistency has ever pre-stitutional vivacity which brought him so early upon the stage sented itself on the various field of human nature as that of a of public life. The sort of advice he gives to Titus in referman who being by constitutional tendency fierce and despotic, ence to the factious and dissolute Jews of Crete (as well as after yielding himself through a long course of years to the similar passages in the epistles to Timothy) makes it certain influence of a gloomy creed, was yet, at the close of life, such that the repellant force of his mind remained undiminished. as this letter declares "Paul the aged" to have been. It is Paul had not become so easy-much less imbecile, as to wink certain then, that Paul's creed was not gloomy; but on the at disorders, or tamely to allow either the apostolic or the contrary, benign; and benign in the most active and effica- episcopal authority to be sported with. cious sense. Is there not in the epistle to Philemon a melody of love, struck from the chords of a nicely attuned heart? Yet it was the Gospel, not Nature, that so attuned it.

Yet it was no personal homage that he demanded, such as ambition seeks for. "I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious"-an eminent example of that mercy If a man's character is to be known more certainly from his which even "the chief of sinners" henceforward may hope to conversation with his intimate friends or family, than from receive. The first point insisted upon in these pastoral adhis public harangues, so, and for the same reasons, a private monitions is, that prayer and praise should be offered in the correspondence is more available for such a purpose than a christian assemblies continually on behalf "cf all men," espegeneral treatise. And again, if there be any one species of cially "for kings, and all that are in authority. For this is personal and private correspondence which, more than ano-good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who ther, lays open a writer's secret principles, it is that carried will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge on between men of the same profession or calling, on subjects of the truth." Is it the religious misanthrope who speaks in involving the credit and interests of that calling. The senti- this passage?-there is certainly heard in it no growl of the ments of public persons towards the commonalty over which Jewish grudge against the bulk of mankind; nor does it conthey exercise a control founded altogether on opinion, are vey the writer's covert revenge against the Roman or Jewish very apt to assume an aspect either of hostility, or of crafti- authorities, that had every where loaded him with wrongs. ness. Then when such official persons interchange their pri-One might, for a moment, fancy that Paul had at length gained vate feelings, and especially when a superior of the order con- access to the imperial saloon-was basking in the sunshine veys instructions to the subaltern, there will infallibly peep of the court, and thence was issuing mandates to the chrisout, in some part, the sinister sentiment-the harboured tian world in the fulness of his complacency. Alas-he was grudge, the sly maxims of professional prudence, or the lurking still the tenant of a dungeon! Mark it; this command to acrimony and arrogance toward the populace-if in fact any pray for kings and magistrates was sealed by a hand then actsuch oblique motive or principle exist in the mind of the wri-ually encumbered with the chain of despotic power! ter; nor will any discretion avail to prevent its appearance. The description given of episcopal qualifications in these Now having before us a writer's various compositions, if letters might be pertinently adduced as proof of the modesty we go over them all, beginning with those of a general or and soundness of the writer's conceptions of spiritual supreabstract kind, and advance to such as are more specific, and macy. To estimate fairly this description we ought to place at last open the packet of his private and professional papers, in comparison with it certain magnific passages that might

readily be quoted from even the most moderate of the Fathers. J of a happy aspect is the ordinary corollary of this writer's inHe who, as we have seen, is neither murky and contumacious cidental advices: as thus, "Refuse profane and old wives' towards secular authorities, nor exorbitant and preposterous fables; and exercise thyself rather unto godliness; for bodily in his notions of ecclesiastical prerogative, may justly claim exercise profiteth little; but godliness is profitable unto all a rare praise, inasmuch as the one of these faults, or the other, things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that (if not both together) has ordinarily belonged to men who which is to come We trust in the living God, WHO have stood at the head of religious communities in times of IS THE SAVIOUR OF ALL MEN, specially of those that believe." persecution. "From men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, with"Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil:-the Lord draw thyself; BUT GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT IS GREAT reward him according to his works;"an announcement, this, GAIN; for we brought nothing into this world, and it is cerof righteous retribution, and in harmony with the established tain we can carry nothing out; having therefore food and raitone of divinely commissioned men; and necessary to the ment, let us be therewith content." In several instances the maintenance of apostolic authority. But we find that the most sublime of all the doxologies which the Scriptures conirksome subject is glanced at only, and that an instantaneous tain are those thrown by Paul into the midst of his discussion transition is made to one which, although painful also, serves of lower subjects. Perhaps, if we were to select the passato bring into view that rule of discrimination according to ges in his epistles from which, more signally than from any which the apostle meted out their censures-"making a dif- others, the brightness of the upper world shines out, they ference, and of some having compassion." "At my first an- would be those that most abruptly turn the current of his swer" (arraignment) says Paul, no man stood with me; discourse. Yet what is this, if we are to lay any stress but all forsook me; Let it not be laid to their charge!" upon the constant laws of the human mind, but proof that the A criterion of a man's temper might with great safety be happiest, the most expansive, and the most elevated sentidrawn from the simple, though not obtrusive, circumstance ments constituted the very substance or inner body, of the of the sort of transitions he is accustomed to make in unpre-writer's character, so that every rapid transition he makes, meditated converse with his friends, or in his confidential and every sudden movement is a revulsion from the sombre correspondence. It is in these sudden turns and replications to the bright; or from wrath to mercy; or from duties to rethat the inner texture of the soul is exposed to view. Every compences;-in one word, from earth to heaven! one who has been a meditative listener to the familiar talk of Christianity then, such as we find it in the Scriptures, is mankind, is well aware of the significance of the fact we here benign-it is from heaven; and even had it utterly vanished refer to. The characteristic of the mind, and of its individual or ceased to affect mankind in the same age that saw it apaffections, is not so well furnished by what a man says on pear, the documentary proof of its divine origin would have such or such a topic, deliberately brought before him, as by remained not the less complete and irresistible. In that case what he slides into, when the immediate subject is dismissed.-convinced as we must have been that the True Light had If pride rankle in the bosom-if murky revenge be the master once, though but for a moment, glanced upon the earth, we passion-if envy bear rule within the hidden world; or if should have looked wistfully upward in hope that the great spiritual arrogance be the yeast that ferments in the soul, we revolutions of the heavens would at length bring round å seshall readily detect the disguised malady as often as the man cond dawn, and a lasting day. makes his transition, or turns off from the question or dis- But it is far otherwise; and in coming to the close of a course that has engaged him. course that has presented the perversions, not the excellences And how, on the other hand, does the benignity-the char- of Christianity, we should seek relief from the impression itable hope the kind interpretation of what is ambiguous, made by a long continued contemplation of a single order of break out from the casual converse of a tranquil and happy objects-and those the most dire. The Gospel has had mulspirit! Let the sky be never so much darkened, we feel titudes of genuine adherents-Christ a host of followers, in (when in such company) that a summer's sun is somewhere the worst times; or if the first three centuries, or the last above the horizon; and ere long its power and brightness act- three of Christian history, are looked to, it would indicate afually bursts out, even from the midst of gloom and thunder. fection, or a melancholy and malignant temper, to estimate at Now by this very rule, and it is perhaps one of the most con- a low rate the extent of the true Church. stant and certain of any that may be advanced as a clew to Yet the terrible fact which, though predicted by the aposthe secrets of the human heart, we are content that the writer tles, would have astounded themselves, had it stood before of the Pauline epistles should be judged, and the quality of them in distinct perspective, remains to sadden our meditahis deepest motives, and the colour of his habitual sentiments tions-That an apostasy, dating its commencements from a be decisively spoken of. We say then that the writings of very early age, spread over the whole area of Christendom, Paul, abrupt and elliptical as his method often seems, are in affecting every article of belief, and every rule of duty; and a special manner distinguished by a frequent beaming forth that it held itself entire through much more than a thousand of hope and glory when least one expects it. He writes like years.

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a man who descends to his subject from a higher sphere:- But what is our own position? what stage on the highway as for example, when, after laying down the rule of behaviour of truth has the Protestant community reached? are the reproper to a servile condition, and insisting upon submissive- formed churches calmly looking back, as from an elevation, ness and fidelity, he returns, as in a moment, to the very sum- and under the beams of day, upon a dark landscape, far remit of joy. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation mote, and hardly distinguishable? or should it not rather be hath appeared to all men, teaching us," not only the virtues confessed that our reformations, though real and immensely of common life, but that we should "look for that blessed important, are initiative only? This is certain, that the evohope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, our Sa-lutions of the Divine Providence exhibit seldom or never to viour, Jesus Christ." Almost immediately we meet with a the eye of man any hurried transition; but that it renovates sudden transition of another sort, indicative of the permanent and restores by successive impulses, and these at distant inhumility of the writer's mind, as well as of its broad benig-tervals. We only follow then the established order of things nity and good-will. "Put them in mind to be subject to prin- when we hope that there is yet in reserve for the world the cipalities, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers; but boon of an unsullied Christianity.

gentle, showing all meekness to all men. For we ourselves The sinister sense in which men of a certain party would also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving snatch at such a supposition, and affirm that even the prime divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, articles of truth have not yet been disengaged from the genand hating one another. But after that the kindness and love eral apostasy, except by the sceptic few, is peremptorily exof God our Saviour toward man appeared." Is not this the cluded by the fact of the general and popular diffusion, and natural turn of a mind at once humble, pious, and benevolent? devout perusal of the Scriptures. For if, even where univer"This thou knowest (or, knowest thou this?) that all they sally read and piously studied, the Inspired Books fail to which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Phy-convey to the majority their principal meaning, it is certain gellus and Hermogenes." But does resentment lodge in the that they are better discarded than any longer reverenced as writer's mind; or is the subject pursued and morosely grasp- Instruments of religious Instruction. If the Church-take ed? What meet we in the very next verse k "The Lord what age we please has not possessed itself of the vital ele give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed ments of sacred knowledge while unrestrainedly reading, and me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in while diligently studying the Scriptures, then the labours of Rome he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The those who would tell us so, are idle; for it must be confessed Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that the pursuit of truth at all on the field of Revelation, is a that day; and in how many things he ministered unto me at desperate enterprise.

Ephesus, thou knowest very well." Some universal axiom Yet this granted-and it is unquestionable, an attentive

and impartial survey of the religious history of mankind leads misunderstanding of the Gospel exists, while the ecclesiastito the conclusion (and it is on the one hand a consolatory, as cal condition of the religious commonwealth is in all senses well as on the other an affective conclusion) that the possess-preposterous.

ion of the vital elements of religion may consist with such Let it be assumed that each separate article of our creed is perversions, both in theory and sentiment, as deprive Christi- well warranted by Scripture; it may notwithstanding be true anity of its visible beauty, and forbid its propagation. Most that indefinite misconceptions, affecting the Divine character of the examples adduced in the preceding sections come and government, or that certain modes of feeling generated under the range of this principle; and in presenting al-in evil days, and still uncorrected, exist, and operate to beways the illustrious and the mitigated instances rather than numb the impulsive and expansive energies of the Gospel. the exaggerated or the base, the author has steadily held to Our interpretation of Christianity may be good, and may be his purpose of bringing home to every mind the conviction pure enough for private use; it may be good in the closet, that no degree of piety should be allowed to protect the sys-good as the source of the motives of common life; and good as tem under which it appears from the severest scrutiny, or the ground of hope in death and yet may be altogether unfit from grave suspicions. for conquest and triumph. That it is so unfit, should be asIf it be asked on what ground any such suspicion can fairly sumed as the only pious and becoming explication we can give rest at a time when the characteristics of freedom, vigour, and of the almost universal ignorance and irreligion of mankind. activity broadly attached to the exterior of religious profession, With no very easy sense of the greatness, the, difficulty, it may at once be replied that there must be room for serious and the peril of the task to which he puts his trembling and and unsparing inquiries, so long as the actual products bear a perhaps presumptuous hand, yet from the impulse of a feeling very slender proportion to the means of general instruction-not to be repressed, and with a resolution not to be daunted, so long as Christianity fails to affect the more energetic por- the Author-imploring aid from on High, will ask yet again tion of the community-so long as zealous endeavours to the attention and the concurrence of those who, like himself— propagate the faith abroad, though not altogether unblessed, are invincibly persuaded of the truth of Christianity, can taste no followed, after a long trial, with scanty successes; but espe- personal enjoyments, can admit no rest, while it faulters on cially have we cause to suspect that some fatal and occult its course through the world.

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WILNA, of the ACADEMY AND SOCIETY OF ARTS OF Geneva,

OF THE ITALIAN ACADEMIES of georgoFILI, CAGLIARI, AND PISTOIA, ETC. ETC.

CHAPTER I.

First Crusade, from 1207 to 1209.

his protection, and served in his armies. The viscounts of Narbonne, of Beziers, and of Carcassonne, regarded him as their count. The lord of Montpellier had submitted to him. The powerful court of Toulouse, surrounded by his states France, during the feudal period, instead of forming an en- and vassals, maintained, with difficulty, his own independtire monarchy, was submitted to the influence of four kings; ence against him. The countships of Provence and of Forto each of whom a number of grand vassals were subordinate; calquier belonged solely to him, whilst the other vassals of so that the North of France might be considered as Walloon, the kingdom of Arles were eager to obtain his protection. a name afterwards confined to the French Flemings, and Languedoc, Provence, Catalonia, and all the surrounding which was then giving to the language spoken by Philip countries which depended on the king of Aragon, were peoAugustus; towards the West was an English France; to pled by an industrious and intelligent race of men, addicted the East a German France; and in the South, a Spanish or to commerce and the arts, and still more to poetry. They Aragonese France. Till the reign of Philip Augustus, the had formed the provençal language; which, separating itself first division possessed the least of extent, of riches, or of from the Walloon Romon, or French, was distinguished by power. That monarch, by a concourse of fortunate circum- more harmonious inflexions, by a richer vocabulary, by exstances rather than by his talents, greatly exalted the splen- pressions more picturesque, and by greater flexibility. This dour of his crown, and extended his dominion over a part of language, studied by all the genius of the age, consecrated France much more important than his own inheritance. At to the innumerable songs of war and of love, appeared at that the beginning of the thirteenth century, the division which moment destined to become the first and the most elegant of has been indicated did, however, still exist. He had conquered the languages of modern Europe. Those who used it had more than half of the English France, but Aquitaine still be- renounced the name of Frenchmen for that of Provençals; longed to England. The Germanic France had the same they had endeavoured, by the means of their language, to limits; except that, of the three kingdoms of which it was form themselves into a nation and to separate themselves abcomposed, those of Lorraine and Burgundy had more inti- solutely from the French, to whom they were indeed inferior mately than formerly united themselves with the Empire, so in the arts of war, but whom they greatly excelled in all the that their history was no longer mingled with that of France. attainments of civilization. On the contrary, the kingdom of Provence had so much re- The numerous courts of the small princes amongst whom laxed its connexion with the imperial crown, that its great these countries were divided aspired to be models of taste and vassals might be considered absolutely independent, and the politeness. They lived in festivity; their chief occupation most powerful of its states, the countship of Provence, pos- was tournaments, courts of love, and of poesy, in which sessed by the king of Aragon, might be justly denominated questions of gallantry were gravely decided. The cities the Aragonese France. were numerous and flourishing. Their forms of govern

The king of Aragon might, as well as the king of Eng-ment were all nearly republican; they had consuls chosen land, be considered a French prince. The greater part of his by the people, and had long possessed the privilege of formstates, even beyond the Pyrenees and as far as the Ebro, ing communes, which rendered them nearly equal to the Italwere considered to belong to the ancient monarchy of Charle- ian republics with whom they traded. magne, and owed homage to the crown of France. Like the In the midst of such growing prosperity was this lovely king of England, the king of Aragon had acquired, either by region delivered to the fury of countless hordes of fanatics, its marriages, or by grants of fief, or by treaties of protection, do- cities ruined, its population consumed by the sword, its comminion over a great number of French lords, some of whom did merce destroyed, its arts thrown back into barbarism, and homage to the king of France, others to the emperor; but all its dialect degraded, from the rank of a poetic language, to of whom, nevertheless, rendered obedience only to the Span- the condition of a vulgar jargon. This horrible revolution ish monarch. The Counts of Bearn, of Armagnac, of Big- was not, in its commencement, directed by the French gov orre, of Cominges, of Foix, and of Roussillon, lived under ernment; but some of its consequences were, that the Pro

vençals ceased to be a nation; that the influence of the king they still allowed that, in appearance, they observed an irreof Aragon over a large part of the South of France was des-proachable chastity; that, in their abstinence from all animal troyed; and that the power of the kings of France was, at food, their rigour exceeded that of the severest monks; that, last, extended to the Mediterranean Sea. through their regard for truth, they admitted on no occasion The preaching of a first religious reformation amongst the any excuse for falsehood; that, in a word, their charity alprovençals was the occasion of the devastation of this beau-ways prepared them to devote themselves to the welfare of tiful country. Too early enlightened, proceeding too rapidly others. Several poems of the Vaudois, written in the twelfth in the career of civilizations these people excited the jealousy century, and recently published, confirm the resemblance and hatred of the surrounding barbarians. A struggle began between the doctrine and discipline of the early and later between the lovers of darkness and those of light, between reformers.

the advocates of despotism and those of liberty. The party Activity and zeal for proselytism form another relation that wished to arrest the progress of the human mind had on between the two reformations. Both began at a period when its side the pernicious skill of its chiefs, the fanaticism of its the human mind, eager for instruction, examined all that it agents, and a number of its soldiers. It triumphed; it anni- had found established; demanded a reason for all obedience; hilated its adversaries: and with such fury did it profit by and, at the same time that it overturned ancient civil dominaits victory, that the conquered party was never able to rise tions, to establish new ones, it also interrogated the ecclesiagain in the same province, or amongst the same race of astical powers, to ascertain their foundation. The adoption of the reformed opinion did not immediately announce itself

men.

In the countries which used the Provençal tongue the cler- as a heresy; it was, in the eyes of the initiated, only a progy had been enriched by immense dotations; but the bish-ject of sanctification; it was an engagement to greater zeal, oprics were generally reserved for members of powerful fam- to severer morals, to higher sacrifices, to a more constant ilies, who led disorderly lives, whilst the curates and inferior occupation with spiritual things. Since many prelates of the priests, taken from the vassals of the nobility, their peasants church had given the example of such reform, those who and slaves, retained the brutality, the ignorance, and the followed them did not consider themselves as going astray; baseness, of their servile origin. The people of these pro-and Rome herself had sometimes considered the Paterins, the vinces were too enlightened not to feel contempt for the vices Catharins, the poor of Lyon, and all those new religious of the ecclesiastics; and so general was this contempt, that societies, as so many orders of monks who were rousing the expressions the most offensive to churchmen were become fervour of the public, and who never thought of shaking off proverbial. I would rather be a priest, said they by impre-her yoke. Innocent III, who ascended the pontifical throne cation, than have done such a thing! Nevertheless, the dis- in the vigour of his age, was the first who appeared to feel position of the people was towards religion; and that devo- the importance of that independent spirit which was already tion which they could not find in the church, they sought for degenerating into revolt. His predecessors, engaged in a amongst the sectaries. These were numerous in the pro- perilous struggle with the two Henrys, and Frederic Barbavince; and the most ancient historian of the persecution rossa, thought their entire force not too much to defend them affirms, that Toulouse, whose name, says he, ought rather to against the emperors; and, in those times, had themselves have been Tota dolosa, had been scarcely ever exempt, even accepted the name of Paterins, which had been given to their from its first foundation, from that pest of heresy which the most zealous partisans. But Innocent III, whose genius at fathers transmitted to their children. once embraced and governed the universe, was as incapable Those very persons who punished the sectaries with fright- of temporising as he was of pity. At the same time that he ful torments have alone taken upon themselves to make us destroyed the political balance of Italy and Germany; that acquainted with their opinions; allowing, at the same time, he menaced by turns the kings of Spain, of France, and of that they had been transmitted in Gaul from generation to England; that he affected the tone of a master with the generation, almost from the origin of Christianity. We cannot, kings of Bohemia, of Hungary, of Bulgaria, of Norway, and therefore, be astonished if they have represented them to us of Armenia; in a word, that he directed or repressed at his with all those characters which might render them the most will the Crusaders, who were occupied in overturning the monstrous, mingled with all the fables which would serve to Greek empire and in establishing that of the Latins at Conirritate the minds of the people against those who professed stantinople ;-Innocent III, as if he had had no other occupathem. Nevertheless, amidst many puerile or calumnious tales, tion, watched over, attacked, and punished, all opinions differit is still easy to recognize the principles of the reformation of ent from those of the Roman church, all independence of mind, the sixteenth century amongst the heretics who are designated every exercise of the faculty of thinking in the affairs of by the name of Vaudois, or Albigeois. Numerous sects existed religion.

undation of the Red Sea.

at the same time in the province; and this was the necessary Though it was in the countries where the provençal lanconsequence of the liberty of inquiry which formed the es- guage was spoken, and especially in Languedoc, that the sence of their doctrine: all agreed, however, in regarding reformation of the Paterins had made the greatest progress, the church of Rome as having absolutely perverted Christian- it had also spread rapidly in other parts of Christendom, in ity, and in mantaining that it was she who was designated Italy, in Flanders, in Lorraine, in Germany, and in Spain. in the Apocalypse by the name of the whore of Babylon. Innocent III, both from character and policy, judged that the Some, however, who were distinguished by the name of Vau- church ought to keep no measures with the sectaries; that, if dois, or Waldenses, did not differ from her on the points which it did not crush them, if it did not exterminate their race, and are the most important, whilst others had given such license strike Christendom with terror, their example would soon be to their imaginations as almost to destroy the entire system followed, and that the fermentation of mind, which was of revelation. They attributed the Old Testament to the every where manifest, would shortly produce a conflagration principle of evil; for God was there represented, they said, throughout the Roman world. Instead therefore of making as a homicide, who destroyed the human race by a deluge, converts, he charged his ministers to burn the leaders, to Sodom and Gomorrah by fire, and the Egyptians by the in- disperse the flocks, and to confiscate the property of every one who would not think as he did. At first, he required of But, with respect to those who opened the career to the those provinces, where the reformation had made but small reformers of the sixteenth century, we recognize their teach- progress, to give the example of persecution; and, in reality, ing by their denial of the real presence in the eucharist. "If many leaders of the new church perished in the flames at the body of Christ," said they, "was as large as our moun- Nevers, in 1198 and the following years. The emperor tains, it must have been destroyed by the number of those Otho IV, who regarded himself as a creature of Innocent III, whom they pretend to have eaten of it." They rejected the granted him an edict for the destruction of the Paterins, calsacraments of confirmation, of confession, and marriage, as led also Gazari, in Italy. But there was a certain number of vain and frivolous; they charged with idolatry the exposure lords and high barons, who had themselves adopted the new of images in the churches; and they named the bells, which opinions, and who, instead of consenting to persecute, prosummoned the people to the adoration of these images, trum-tected the sectaries. Others saw in them only industrious pets of demons. Their teachers or priests were contented vassals, whom they could not destroy without affecting their with a black coat, instead of the pompous vestments of the own revenues and power. Innocent III, therefore, sought to catholic clergy. After they had caused their proselytes to arm a present interest, and brutal avarice, against this calcuabjure idolatry, they received them into their church by the lating economy of the barons. He abandoned to them the imposition of hands and the kiss of peace. Whilst their confiscation of all the heretics' property, and exhorted them enemies endeavoured to blacken their reputation by charging to take possession of it, after they had banished those whom them with permitting, in their teaching, the most licentious they had plundered, and threatened them with death if they manners, and with practising, in secret, all kinds of disorders, returned to their homes. At the same time, Innocent III, VOL. II.-3 F

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