obtained from persons either ignorant of such matters, and thus incompetent witnesses, or deceived and ensnared by insidious language'. Whoever shall bring to the decision of this controversy a good acquaintance with Grecian affairs, and a mind unbiassed by prejudice, will judge, I apprehend, that no small part of the Greek church had, for many ages, possessed some obscure idea of transubstantiation, but received more clear and explicit ideas of it, in modern times, from the Romans'.

4. Of the independent Greek churches, or those not subject to the Byzantine patriarch, the Russian is the only one that affords any matter for history; the others lie buried in vast ignorance and darkness. Among the Russians, about the year 1666, a certain sect showed itself, and produced no little commotion, which called itself Isbraniki, or the company of the elect, but by its adversaries it was called Roskolskika, that is, the seditious faction 2. What these find to censure in the modern Greek church, and what opinions and rites they hold, is not yet fully known. It appears, however, in general, that they distinguish themselves by a great show of piety, and represent the ancient religion of the Russians as much marred, partly by the negligence, and partly by the licentiousness of the bishops. The Russians long assailed this factious throng with

Here should be consulted above all others, John Cowell, who was resident at Constantinople, when this drama was acted, and himself saw, by what artifices the Greeks were induced to give testimony in favour of the Latins: Account of the Present Greek Church, pref. p. ii. &c. and book i. ch. v. p. 136, &c.

Maturin Viesse la Croze, who is well known to have been by no means partial to the Jesuits and to Romish opinions, supposed that the Greeks had long been infected with the doctrine of transubstantiation. See Gisb. Cuper's Epistola, edited by Beyer, p. 37. 44. 48. 51. 65.

2 Perhaps these are the very persons whom the celebrated Gmelin, in his Travels in Siberia, in German, vol. iv. p. 404. calls Sterowerzi. [They doubtless come under this denomination; for Rob. Pinkerton (Present State of the Greek Church in Russia. Appendix, p. 227,) tells us, "The

national church in Russia gives the general name of Raskolniks, or Schismatics, to all the sects which have at different periods renounced her communion; but these separatists uniformly style themselves Starovertsi, or Believers of the old faith." Tr.]

3 See Nic. Bergius, de Statu Ecclesice et Religionis Moscoriticce, sect. xi. cap. vii. p. 69. Add sect. ii. cap. xvi. p. 218. and in the Append. p. 270. Jo. Mich. Heineccius on the Greek church, (written in German,) pt. iii. p. 30, &c. Peter Van Haven's Travels in Russia, p. 316. of the German translation. Some Lutheran writers have supposed or suspected, that these Isbraniki were a progeny of the ancient Bogomils. [Dr. Mosheim's account of the Russian dissenters is very lame. See the whole Appendix to Rob. Pinkerton's Present State of the Greek Church in Russia, ed. New-York, 1815, p. 227-276. He tells us, it is common to date the origin of sectarians in the Russian

ecuneus, eccfitations, very barsi punisaments, military force, and flatteries: but the effet of all these remedies was to drive them to more remote regions, and as is usual to render them more pertinacious in ecnsequence of their calamities and sufferings. A mider treatment began to be shown them from the time that Peter L.. whose achievements przeured him the surname of Great, introduced a great change in both the civil and ecclesiastical government of the Russian empire. But the schism is so far from being bealed that this revolution in the Russian affairs is said rather to have added firmness and stability to it.

§ 5. It will not be improper here to subjoin a few remarks respecting that reformation of the Russian church, by Peter I., which we have just mentioned. For though it belongs to the following century, yet the foundations for it were laid in the

church, about the mide of the 17th eentury, in the time of the patriarch Nikon. But according to the Russian annais, there existed setismatics in the Russian et arch 200 years before the days of Nikon; and the disturbances which took place in his time, only proved the means of augmenting their numbers, and of bringing them forward into publie view. The earliest of these schismatics first appeared in Novogorod, early in the 15th century, under the name of Strigoln ks. A Jew named Horie preached a mixture of Judaism and Christianity; and proselyted two priests, Denis and Alexie, who gained a vast number of followers. This sect was so numerous that a national council was called, towards the close of the 15th century, to oppose it. Soon afterwards, one Karp, an excommunicated deacon, joined the Strigolniks; and accused the higher clergy of selling the office of priesthood, and of so far corrupting the church, that the Holy Ghost was withdrawn from it. He was a very successful propagator of this sect. But numerous as the Strigolniks were, they were few compared with the vast number and variety of sectarians, produced by the attempts to correct the copies of the Russian liturgy, or books used in the churches, which amount to twenty folio volumes. These having long been

preserved by transcription, were found to exctain numerous mistakes of transcribers, and to differ greatly from each other. The higher clergy and the princes, as early as 1518, attempted to correct these books, and bring them all to agreement. And the object was pursued for more than a century, amidst great opposition, before it was fully accomplished. The great body of the Raskolniks, or dissenters, though divided into various sects, yet all agree with one another, and with the national church, in articles of faith, and generally in rites and modes of worship; but they consider the national church as corrupt, as having falsified the sacred books, and thus subverted religion. There are, however, some minor sects, which differ from the establishment both in faith and worship. Pinkerton divides them into two grand classes, the Popopftschins, or those who admit the national priests that apostatize to them, to officiate still as priests, without reordination; and the Bezpopoftchins, or those who either have no priests, or have only such as they themselves ordain. Of the former class he enumerates fire sects, and the latter fifteen. But the history of these sects more properly belongs to the following century. See also Stæudlin's Kirchliche Geographie, vol. i. p. 289, &c. Tr.]

close of this. That immortal prince suffered the Greek religion, as professed by the Russians, to remain entire: but he took vast pains to have it explained according to sound reason and the holy scriptures; to destroy that superstition which was diffused greatly over the whole nation; and to dispel the amazing ignorance both of the priests and the common people. These were great and noble designs, but exceedingly difficult, and such as often require ages for their accomplishment. To effect them the more readily, he became the patron of all the arts and sciences, invited learned men from all quarters into the country, established new schools, and purged the old ones of their barbarism, laboured to enkindle in his subjects a thirst for learning of all kinds and for literature, abolished the iniquitous practice of persecuting and punishing errorists, and granted to all christian sects dissenting from the Greeks, full liberty to worship according to their own views. Yet in the last particular, he was careful to restrain the eagerness of the Romanists for extending the dominion of their pontiff. They had certain places assigned them, in which if they chose to reside among the Russians, they might worship in their way. But the Jesuits were prohibited from teaching among the Russian people; and the council that controls all matters of religion, was directed to see that Romish opinions were not propagated among the people. All ecclesiastical affairs are managed very differently from what they were formerly. For the emperor suppressed the splendid office of primate, because it was thought prejudicial to the sovereignty of the prince, and made himself sovereign pontiff and head of the Russian churchʻ. This vicegerent, [in ecclesiastical affairs,] is a council established at St. Petersburg, called the Holy Synod, over which some archbishop of distinguished prudence and fidelity presides. The first that

+ [Dr. Maclaine very justly criticises the language here used by Dr. Mosheim; which implies that the emperor assumed a spiritual office and spiritual power. He only claimed the right, as emperor, to receive appeals from the ecclesiastical courts, and to give law to priests as well as to the rest of his subjects. He was head of the church, in much the same sense as the kings of

England and the German princes are ; none of whom ever presumed to administer the sacraments, or to perform any appropriate functions of a clergyman or priest. Tr.]

5 [This is not perfectly correct. In the year 1700, Peter abolished the patriarchal office, and appointed an Exarch, with limited powers, who could do nothing without the consent

filled this office was the celebrated Stephen Javorski, well known by his work in the Russian language, against heretics. The other ecclesiastical offices remain as before; but they are deprived of much of the authority formerly annexed to them, and of no small part of their revenues and privileges. At first it was intended to suppress all monasteries, whether for men or for women. But from this design the emperor so far departed afterwards, that he himself dedicated a magnificent house of this kind to Alexander Newsky, whom the Russians number among their saints'.

§ 6. A part of the Asiatic Monophysites, for a time, left the religion of their fathers, and united themselves with the Romanists. Their prompter to this measure was one Andrew Achigian, who had been educated at Rome, was appointed patriarch by the Roman pontiff, and assumed the name of Ignatius XXIV3. At his death, one Peter, who took the name of Ignatius XXV., assumed the office: but, at the instigation of the legitimate primate of the sect, he was banished by the Turks, and the little flock of which he was the head was soon dispersed'. Of the African Monophysites, the Copts, notwithstanding their wretchedness, ignorance, and poverty, firmly resisted the persons, who so often solicited them with very advantageous offers

of the other bishops, and was obliged to refer all affairs of moment to the decision of the Tzar himself. Such was Stephen Javorski, mentioned in the next sentence. But in 1720 Peter abolished the Exarchy also, and in place of it instituted the Holy Legislative Synod, consisting first of twelve, and afterwards of an indefinite number of the higher clergy, selected by the emperor. At the head of this Synod there is always a layman, who is the representative of the Tzar, and has a negative upon all its resolutions, till they are laid before the emperor. This nobleman is the minister of the crown for the department of religion. See Pinkerton, loc. cit. p. 26, &c. and Stæudlin's Kirchliche Geographie, vol. i. p. 269, &c. Tr.]

See Mich. le Quien, Oriens Christianus, tom. i. p. 1295.

7 On these subjects much informa

tion may be obtained from Peter van Haven's Travels in Russia; which are extant in a German translation from the Danish.

8 From the 15th century onward, all the primates of the Monophysite sect chose to bear the name of Ignatius; for no other reason, if I do not mistake, than to indicate by their name, that they are successors to Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch in the first century, and the legitimate patriarchs of that see. A similar motive has induced the Maronite primates, who also claim the title of patriarchs of Antioch, to assume the name of Peter. For St. Peter is said to have governed the church of Antioch before Ignatius.

9 See Jo. Simon Asseman's Biblioth. Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, tom. ii. p. 482. and in Diss. de Monophysitis. § iii. p. 6, 7.

to become united with the Romans. In what manner the Abyssinians freed themselves from the yoke of the Romish bishop, which they had indiscreetly assumed, and asserted their ancient independence, has already been stated. And it will now be proper to add, that in some of the Lutherans a holy desire arose to deliver the Abyssinian nation from the darkness of ignorance and superstition, and to bring them to a better knowledge of religion. Prompted by such motives, Peter Heyling of Lubec, a very pious and learned man, visited them in the year 1634: and after spending many years in Ethiopia, and being so smiled upon, as to be made prime minister of state by the emperor, and having accomplished much for the advantage of the people, on his return to Europe he lost his life by means unknown'. Afterwards, Ernest, duke of SaxeGotha, whose exemplary virtue procured him the surname of Pious, at the suggestion and recommendation of that extraordinary man, Job Ludolf, attempted to explore a way for teachers of the reformed religion to go among those distant christians, by means of Gregory an Abyssinian, who was then in Europe'. But Gregory perishing by shipwreck in 1657, Ernest sent Jo.

1 A valuable life of this man was published in German, by Jo. Henry Michaelis, Halle, 1724. 8vo. Add Jo. Möller's Cimbria Litterata, tom.i.p.253, &c. [His father was a jeweller of Lubec. After a good education in his native city, he went to Paris in 1627, having charge of four noble youths. There he became intimate with Hugo Grotius. From Paris he went to Italy, and thence to Malta, where he disputed with the catholic priests. He now assumed the garb of a pilgrim, intending to travel into the East, and acquaint himself with oriental literature. He proceeded to Constantinople, and thence to Palestine and Egypt. He arrived in Egypt in 1634, and so recommended himself to the Copts, by his learning and his piety, that they esteemed him highly, and gave him the title of Moollah. Meeting with the new primate of Ethiopia, who had come to Alexandria for ordination, he joined him; and on their way to Abyssinia, they met Mendez, the Portuguese Jesuit, just banished from that coun

try, whom Heyling encountered and confuted, in a public dispute. Mendez wrote to the pope, that if this Lutheran should go into Abyssinia, he would involve that whole nation in extreme heresy. He arrived there in 1634, and was very popular and useful. But how long he lived, and where he died, is very uncertain. A letter of his to H. Grotius, dated at Memphis, Aug. 28, 1634, respecting the disputes between the Melchites and the Jacobites, is extant in Ludolf's Comment, ad Hist. Ethiop. lib. iii. c. viii. See Möller, loc. cit. Tr.]

2 See Job Ludolf's Preface to his Comment. ad Hist. Ethiopicam, p. 31, &c. Christ. Juncker's Vita Jobi Ludolfi, p. 68, &c. [Ludolf became acquainted with this Gregory, during his tour to Rome, and invited him into Germany. He resided awhile at the court of Gotha; but afterwards was desirous of returning to his country; and on his way, at Alexandretta in Syria, lost his life by shipwreck. Schl.]