and oracular communications, the suggestions of their own heated imaginations, uncontrolled by reason and judgment 2. § 49. It would have been very strange if a man of such a character had not had disciples and followers. It is said that a considerable portion of the inhabitants of Spain, France, and the Netherlands, eagerly entered upon the way of salvation which he pointed out. Nor will this appear incredible, if it be considered, that in all the catholic countries there is a large number of persons who have discernment enough to see that outward ceremonies and bodily mortifications cannot be the whole of religion; and yet have not light enough to be able to arrive at the truth by their own efforts, and without a guide. But these nascent commotions were suppressed by the church in their commencement, in some places by threatenings and punishments, and in others by blandishments and promises: and Molinos himself being put out of the way, his disciples and friends did not appear formidable. Among the friends and avowers of Quietistic sentiments, the following persons especially have been often mentioned; namely, Peter Matthew Petrucci, a pious man and one of the Romish cardinals; Francis de la Combe, a Barnabite, and instructor of Madam Guyon, who is soon to be mentioned; Francis Malavalle; Berniere de Louvigni; and some others of less note. These differed from each other, and from Molinos, in many particulars, as is common with mystics, who are governed more by the visions of their own minds than by fixed rules and principles. Yet, if we disregard words, and look only at their import, we shall find that they all set out from the same principles, and tended to the same results". 2 What can be said in defence of Molinos, has been collected by Christ. Eberh. Weismann, Historia Eccles. sæcul. xvii. p. 555. The writings of these persons are enumerated, with remarks upon them, by Domin. de Colonia, in his Bibliotheca Quietistica, subjoined to his Biblioth. Janseniana, p. 455. 488. Godfr. Arnold, Historia et Descriptio Theol. Mystica, p. 364, and Peter Poiret, Bibliotheca Mysticorum, Amsterd. 1708. 8vo. [Cardinal Petrucci, born in 1636, at Ancona, cardinal 1686, died 1701; wrote Theologia Contemplatica; Spiritual Letters and Tracts; On the Government of the Passions; Mystic Riddle; Apology for the Quietists; &c., printed collectively, Venice, 1684.-La Combe was a native of Savoy, and a zealous propagator of Quietism in France. He wrote Analysis Orationis Mentalis; and was committed to the Bastille, in 1687, where he ended his days.-Malavalle was born at Marseilles, 1627, became blind in infancy; yet he composed, Pratique facile pour élever l'ame à la Contemplation; Poésies Sacrées ; &c., that other races of men inhabited our world long before Adam, the father of the Jews. Although he was not a Roman catholic when he promulged this opinion, yet the Romish church deemed it their duty to punish an offence against religion in general; and therefore, in the year 1656, put him into prison at Brussels. And he would, perhaps, have been burnt at the stake, had he not embraced the Romish religion, and renounced that of the Reformed, in which he had been educated, and also publicly confessed his error". Thomas Albius, [White,] or Blacklo, better known by the name of Thomas Anglus, from his native country. About the middle of the century he published numerous tracts, by which he acquired much notoriety in the Netherlands, France, Portugal, and England, and not a little hatred in his own church. He undoubtedly was acute and ingenious but relying on the principles of the Peripatetic philosophy, to which he was extravagantly devoted, he ventured to explain and elucidate by them certain articles of the Romish faith. This confidence in Aristotle betrayed him into opinions that were novel and strange to Romish ears; and his books were prohibited and condemned by the congregation of the Index at Rome, and in some other places. He is said to have died in England, and to have founded a sect among his countrymen, which time has destroyed. Joseph Francis Burrhi or Borrhus, a Milanese knight, and deeply read in chemistry 7 Peter Bayle, Dictionnaire, tom. iii. p. 2215. [Art. Peirere, Isaac.] Godfr. Arnold. Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie, vol. iii. ch. vii. p. 70. Menagiana, published by Bernh. Monnoye, tom. ii. p. 40. [The writings of Peyrere were: Præadamita, sive Exercitatio super versibus 12, 13, 14, cap. 5. Epist. D. Pauli ad Rom. 1655. 12mo., and Systema Theolog. ex Præadamitarum Hypothesi, pars i. His recantation was contained in Is. Peyrerei Epistola ad Philotimum, qua exponit rationes, propter quas ejurarerit Sectam Calrini, quam profitebatur, et librum de Præadamitis, quem ediderat, Francf. 1658. 12mo. He afterwards lived retired at Paris, among the Fathers of the Oratory, and was supported by the prince of Condé. Schl.] 8 Peter Bayle, Dictionnaire, tom. i. p. 236. [art. Anglus.] Andrew Baillet, Vie de M. des Cartes, tom. ii. p. 245. [His real name was Thomas White; and he was born of a respectable family of English catholics; but to disguise himself, he assumed various names, as Albius, Candidus, Bianchi, Richworth, &c. He was best known however, by the name of Anglus, i. e. English. Being a man of genius, and an enthusiastic Peripatetic, but possessing little solidity of judgment, he was perpetually advancing new and singular opinions, which would not bear examination. He resided in nearly every catholic country of Europe, found reason often to change his residence, passed through various scenes, and finally died in England. He was much opposed to the philosophy of des Cartes. See Bayle, loc. cit. Tr.] and medicine, if what is reported of him be true, was not so much an errorist as a delirious man. For the pratings attributed to him, concerning the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit, the new celestial city which he was to found, and the destruction of the Roman pontiff, are so absurd and ridiculous, that no one can suppose him to have been of a sane mind, without showing himself not to be so. His conduct, in one place and another, shows abundantly that he had a great deal of vanity, levity, and deception, but very little of sound reason and good sense. He once escaped from the snares of the Inquisition, and roamed as an exile over a considerable part of Europe, pretending to be a second Esculapius, and an adept in the great mysteries of the chemists. But in the year 1672 he again imprudently fell into the hands of the papists, who condemned him to perpetual imprisonment. A book of Cœlestine Sfondrati, in which he attempted to explain and settle, in a new way, the controversies respecting predestination, disturbed, in 1696, a large part of the Romish church for it did not entirely please either the Jesuits or their adversaries. Five French bishops of the highest respectability1 accused him, (notwithstanding he had been made a cardinal in 1646, on account of his erudition,) before Innocent XII., of several errors, among which was contempt for the opinions of St. Augustine. But this rising contest was cropped in the bud. The pontiff, indeed, promised the French that he would submit the cause to the examination of eminent theologians, and then would decide it. But, as was the Romish custom, he violated his promise, and did not venture to decide the cause 2. Bayle, Dictionnaire, tom. i. p. 609. [Art. Borri.] Godfr. Arnold, Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie, pt. iii. ch. xviii. p. 193, and others. 1 [They were Pellier, archbishop of Rheims, Noailles, archbishop of Paris. Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, Guy de Seve, bishop of Arras, and Feydeau, bishop of Amiens. Tr.] 2 The book was entitled, Nodus Prædestinationis dissolutus, Rome, 1696. 4to. The letter of the French bishops, and the answer of the pontiff, are given by Charles du Plessis d'Argentre, Collectio Judiciorum de novis Erroribus, tom. iii. pt. ii. p. 394, &c. and by NaVOL. IV. talis Alexander, Theologia Dogmatica $ 52. As there is little to be said of the changes or enlargement of the Romish ceremonies in this century, except that Urban VIII. published a Bull, in 1643, for diminishing the number of feast days; I shall conclude the chapter with a list of those who were canonized and enrolled among the saints by the pontiffs during the century. Clement VIII. pronounced worthy of this highest honour, in 1601, Raymond of Pennafort, the noted collector of the Decretals; in 1608, Francisca de Pontianis, a Benedictine; and in 1610, Charles Boromeo, a very illustrious bishop of Milan. Gregory XV., in the year 1622, gave Theresia, a Carmelite nun of Avila, in Spain, a place in this society. By the authority of Urban VIII., in 1623, Philip Nerius, founder of the Fathers of the Oratory in Italy, Ignatius Loyola, the father of the Jesuits, and Francis Xavier, one of Loyola's first disciples, and the apostle of the Indies, were elevated to this high rank. Alexander VII., in 1658, added Thomas de Vilanova, a Spanish Augustinian, and 1665, Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva, to the intercessors with God. Clement X. joined with them, in 1670, Peter de Alcantara, a Franciscan, and Maria Magdalena de Pactiis, a Florentine Carmelitess; and the next year, 1671, Rose, an American nun of the third order of Dominicians, and Lewis Bertrand, a Spanish Dominican, who had been a missionary in America; and death alone prevented his adding to these Cajetan Thienaus, a Regular Clerk of Vicenza. He was therefore enrolled among the saints, in 1691, by Innocent XII., who also, in the same year, publicly decreed saintship to John of Leon, in Spain, an Eremite of St. Augustine, Paschal Baylonias, a Franciscan monk of Aragon, and John de Dieu (de Deo,), a Portuguese, and one of the Brethren of Hospitality; for all of whom this honour had been designed before by Alexander VIII. to all men gracious aid, not only sufficient, but even more than sufficient for its attainment.-3. That God does not withhold his grace from the worst and most obstinate sinners; but sets before them incipient aid, by using which they might easily obtain the more powerful grace of God.-4. That, still there remains something dark and unfathomable in the doctrine of election. Schl.] 3 This memorable bull of Urban is extant in the Nouvelle Bibliothèque, tom. xv. p. 88, &c. [and in the Magnum Bullarium Cherubini, tom. v. p. 378, dated on the Ides of September, 1642. Tr.] 4 The Bulls of the pontiffs, by which these men and women were enrolled in the class of saints, are mentioned CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND ORIENTAL CHURCHES. § 1. State of the Greek church.---§ 2. Cyrillus Lucaris. Hope of a union of the Greeks and Latins disappointed.-§ 3. Whether the latter corrupted the religion of the former.-§ 4. The Russian church. The Roskolski.-§ 5. Revo. lution in it.—§ 6. State of the Monophysites.-§ 7. The Armenians.--§ 8. The Nestorians. § 1. MANY things perhaps occur among the Greek and other Oriental christians which are neither uninteresting nor unimportant; but the transactions in those countries are but rarely reported to us, and still more rarely are they reported truly, or undisguised either with the colourings of party feelings, or the fabulous tales of the vulgar. We have therefore not much to say here. The Greek church, in this century, as in the preceding, was in a miserable state, afflicted, uncultivated, and destitute of the means of acquiring a sound knowledge of religious subjects. This, however, is true only of the Greeks in general, or as a body. For who will have the folly to deny, that among an immense multitude of people, some of whom often visit Sicily, Venice, Rome, England, Holland, and Germany, and many carry on a successful commerce, and some are advanced to the highest employments in the Turkish court; there can be found individuals, here and there who are neither poor nor unintelligent, nor wholly illiterate, nor destitute of refinement, nor lastly sunk in superstition, vice, and profligacy1? and retailed in their order, by Justus Fontaninus, in the Codex Constitutionum, quas summi Pontifices ediderunt in solemni Canonizatione Sanctorum, p. 260, &c. Rome, 1729. fol. [And all of them, except that of Alexander VII. for the canonization of Francis de Sales, are given at large, in the Magnum Bullarium Cherubini, tom. iii. p. 126. 262. 287. 465. tom iv. p. 12, and append. p. 1. tom. vi. p. 76. 288. 347, and append. p. 3. 17. tom. vii. p. 115. 120. 125. tom. xi. p. 1. tom. xii. p. 78. Tr.] As they recite the ground on which the persons were judged worthy of canonization, these bulls afford very ample matter for the discussion of a sagacious person. Nor would it be a vain or useless labour, for such a one to examine, without superstition, yet with candour, into the justice, the piety, and the truth of those grounds. This remark is made, on account of Alexander Helladius, and others who think with him. There is extant, a book of Helladius, entitled the Present State of the Greek Church, printed in 1714. 8vo. in which he bitterly declaims against the most meritorious and learned writers on Grecian affairs; and |