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XII.

called, the Immaculate conception of the Virginc E N T. MARY [b]. Certain churches in France began, pARTIL about that time, to celebrate the festival consecrated to this pretended conception, which the English had observed before this period in consequence of the exhortations of ANSELM, archbishop of Canterbury, as some authors report. The church of Lions was one of the first that adopted this new festival, which no sooner came to the knowledge of St BERNARD, than he severely censured the Canons of Lions on account of this inno, vation, and opposed the Immaculate conception of the Virgin with the greatest vigour, as it supposed her being honoured with a privilege which belonged to CHRIST alone. Upon this a warm con. test arose; some siding with the Canons of Lions, and adopting the new festival, while others adhe red to the sentiments of St BERNARD [1]. The controversy, however, notwithstanding the zeal of the contending parties, was carried on, during this century, with a certain degree of decency and moderation. But, in after times, when the Dominicans were established in the academy of Paris, the contest was renewed with the greatest vehemence, and the same subject was debated, on both sides, with the utmost animosity and contention of mind. The Dominicans declared for St BERNARD, while the academy patronized the Canons of Lions, and adopted the new festival.

CHAP.

[b] The defenders of this Immaculate Conception maintained, that the Virgin MARY was conceived in the womb of her mother with the same purity that is attributed to CHRIST's conception in her womb.

[i] STI. BERNARDI Epistola 174. tom. i. p. 170.---BOULAY. Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. ii. p. 135.MABILLON, Annal, Bened. tom. vi. p. 327.-DOM. COLONIA, Hist. Litt, de la Ville de Lyon, tom. i. p. 233.

XII.

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Concerning the rites and ceremonies used in the church during this century.

THE

CENT.I. THE rites and ceremonies used in divine worship, both public and private, were PART II now greatly augmented among the Greeks, and Rites used the same superstitious passion for the introduction

in the

Greek church.

of new observances, discovered itself in all the eastern churches. The Grecian, Nestorian, and Jacobite pontifs, that were any way remarkable for their credit or ambition, were desirous of transmitting their names to posterity by the invention of some new rite, or by some striking change introduced into the method of worship that had hitherto prevailed. This was, indeed, almost the only way left to distinguish themselves in an age, where all sense of the excellence of genuine religion and substantial piety being almost totally lost, the whole care and attention of an ostentatious clergy, and a superstitious multitude, were employed upon that round of external ceremonies and observances that were substituted in their place. Thus some attempted, though in vain, to render their names immortal, by introducing a new method of reading or reciting the prayers of the church; others changed the church music; others again tortured their inventions to find out some uew mark of veneration, that might be offered to the relics and images of the saints; while several ecclesiastics did not disdain to employ their time, with the most serious assiduity, in embellishing the garments of the clergy, and in forming the motions and postures they were to observe, and the looks they were to assume, in the celebration of divine worship.

II.

XIL

II. We may learn from the book De divinis C E N T. officiis, composed by the famous RUPERT, or PART ROBERT, of Duytz, what were the rites in use The Latin among the Latins during this century, as also the ritual. reasons on which they were founded. According to the plan we 'follow, we cannot here enlarge upon the additions that were made to the doctrinal part of religion. We shall therefore only observe, that the enthusiastic veneration for the Virgin MARY, which had been hitherto carried to such an excessive height, increased now instead of diminishing, since her dignity was at this time considerably augmented by the new fiction or invention relating to her immaculate conception, For though, as we observed in the preceding chapter, St BERNARD and others opposed with vigour this chimerical notion, yet their efforts were counteracted by the superstitious fury of the deluded multitude, whose judgment prevailed over the counsels of the wise. So that, about the year 1138, there was a solemn festival instituted in honour of this pretended conception, though we know not, with any degree of certainty, by whose authority it was first established, nor in what place it was first celebrated [k].

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Concerning the divisions and heresies that troubled the church during this century.

I. THE

HE Greek and eastern churches were in-
fested with fanatics of different kinds,

who gave them much trouble, and engaged them
in the most warm and violent contests.

Certain
of

[k] MABILLON, Annal. Bened. tom. vi. p. 327. 412.Gallia Christiana, tom. i. p. 1198.

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CIN T.of these fanatics professed to believe in a double PART II. trinity, rejected wedlock, abstained from flesh, treated with the utmost contempt the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, as also all the various branches of external worship; placed the essence of religion in internal prayer alone, and maintained, as it is said, that an evil being, or genius, dwelt in the breast of every mortal, and could be expelled from thence by no other method, than by perpetual supplications to the Supreme Being. The founder of this enthusiastical sect is said to have been a person called LucoPETRUS. His chief disciple was named TYCHICUS, who corrupted, by false and fanatical interpretations, several books of the sacred writings, and particularly the Gospel according to St Matthew [7]. It is well known, that enthusiasts of this kind, who were rather wrong-headed than vicious, lived among the Greeks and Syrians, and more especially among the monks, for many ages before this period, and also in this century. The accounts, indeed, that have been given of them, are not in all respects to be depended upon : and there are several circumstances which rendered it extremely probable, that many persons of eminent piety, and zeal for geniune Christianity, were confounded by the Greeks with these enthusiasts, and ranked in the list of heretics, merely on account of their opposing the vicious practices and the insolent tyranny of the priesthood, and their treating with derision that motley spectacle of superstition that was supported by public authority. In Greece, and in all the eastern provinces, this sort of men were distinguished by the general and invidious appellation of Massalians, or Euchites,

[1] See EUTHYMII Triumphus de Seeta Massalianorum in JAC. TOLLII Lusignibus Itineris Italici p. 106—125.

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chites [m], as the Latins comprehended all the ad- c E N T. versaries of the Roman pontif under the general pART II. terms of Waldenses and Albigenses. It is, however, necessary to observe, that the names above mentioned were very vague and ambiguous in the way they were applied by the Greeks and the Orientals, who made use of them to characterize, without distinction, all such as complained of the multitude of useless ceremonies, and of the vices of the clergy, without any regard to the difference that there was between such persons in point of principles and morals. In short, the righteous and the profligate, the wise and the foolish, were equally comprehended under the name of Massalians, whenever they opposed the raging superstition of the times, or looked upon true and genuine piety as the essence of the Christian character.

II. From the sect now mentioned, that of the The Boge Bogomiles is said to have proceeded, whose founder miles. BASILIUS, a monk by profession, was burnt at Constantinople, under the reign of ALEXIUS COMNENUS, after all attempts to make him renounce his errors had proved ineffectual. By the accounts we have of this unhappy man, and of the errors he taught, it appears sufficiently evident, that

[m] Massalians and Euchites are denominations that signify the same thing, and denote, the one in the Hebrew, and the other in the Greek language, persons that pray. A sect, under this denomination, arose during the reign of the emperor CONSTANTIUS, about the year 361, founded by certain monks of Mesopotamia, who dedicated themselves wholly to prayer, and held many of the doctrines attributed by Dr MoSHEIM to the Massalians of the twelfth century. See AUGUST, De Hæres. cap. lvii. and THEOD. Hæret. Fab. lib. iv. EPIPHANIUS speaks of another sort of Massalians still more ancient, who were mere Gentiles, acknowledged several gods, yet adored only one whom they called Almighty, and had oratories in which they assembled to pray and sing hymns. This resemblance between the Massalians and Essenes, induced SCALIGER to think that EPIPHANIUS Confounded the former with the latter,

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