XV.

theology, supported by the extraordinary credit CE N T. and authority of the Dominicans and Franciscans, PART II. maintained its ground against its various opposers, nor could these two religious orders, who excelled in that litigious kind of learning, bear the thoughts of losing the glory they had acquired by quibbling and disputing in the pompous jargon of the schools.

Mystics.

XI. This vain philosophy, however, grew daily And also more contemptible in the esteem of the judicious by the and the wise, while at the same time the Mystics gathered strength, and saw their friends and abettors multiply on all sides. Among these there were, indeed, certain men of distinguished merit, who are chargeable with few of the errors and extravagancies that were mingled with the discipline and doctrine of that famous sect, such as Thomas a Kempis, the author of the Germanic theology, so highly commended by Luther; Laurentius, Justinianus, Savanarola, and others. There are, on the other hand, some writers of this sect, such as Vincentius Ferrerius, Henricus Harphius, and Bernard Senensis, in whose productions we must carefully separate certain notions which were the effects of a warm and irregular fancy, as also the visions of Dionysius, whom the Mystics consider as their chief, from the noble precepts of divine wisdom with which they are mingled. The Mystics were defended against their adversaries, the Dialectricians, partly by the Platonics, who were every where held in high esteem, and partly by some even of the most eminent scholastic doctors. The former considered Dionysius as a person whose sentiments had been formed and nourished by the study of Platonism, and wrote commentaries upon his writings; of which we have an eminent example in Marcilius Ficinus, whose name adds a lustre in the Platonic school. The latter at

XV.

CENT tempted a certain sort of association between the PART II. Scholastic theology and that of the Mystics; and in this class were JOHN GERSON, NICHOLAS CUSANUS, DIONYSIUS the Carthusian, and others.

The state

or contro

versial di

vinity.

XII. The controversy with the enemies of of polemic, Christianity was carried on with much more vigour in this than in the preceding ages, and several learned and eminent men seemed now to exert themselves with peculiar industry and zeal ́in demonstrating the truth of that divine religion, and defending it against the various objections of its adversaries. This appears from the learned book of MARCILIUS FICINUS, Concerning the Truth of Christianity, SAVANAROLA's Triumph of the cross, the Natural Theology of RAYMOND DE SABUNDE, and other productions of a like nature. The Jews were refuted by PEREZIUS and JEROME DE St For, the Saracens by JOHANNES DE TURRECREMATA, and both these classess of unbelievers were opposed by ALPHONSUS DE SPINA, in his work entitled, The Fortress of Faith. Nor were these pious labours in the defence of the Gospel at all unseasonable or superfluous; on the contrary, the state of things at this time rendered them necessary. For, on the one hand, the Aristotelian philosophers in Italy seemed, in their public instructions, to strike at the foundations of all religion; and, on the other hand, the senseless subtilties and quarrels of the schoolmen, who modelled religion according to their extravagant fancies, tended to bring it into contempt. Add to all this, that the Jews and Saracens lived in many places promiscuously with the Christians, who were therefore obliged, by the proximity of the enemy, to defend themselves with the utThe schism most assiduity and zeal.

between

the Latins

XIII. We have already taken notice of the nd Greeks fruitless attempts that had been made to heal the unhappy divisions that separated the Greek and

not yet

healed.

PARTIL

Latin churches. After the council of Florence,c в N T. and the violation of the treaty of pacification XV. by the Greeks, NICHOLAS V. exhorted and intreated them again to turn their thoughts towards the restoration of peace and concord. But his exhortations were without effect; and in about the space of three years after the writing of this last letter, Constantinople was besieged and taken by the Turks, And from that fatal period to the present time, the Roman pontifs, in all their attempts to bring about a reconciliation, have always found the Grecian patriarchs more obstinate and intractable than they were when their empire was in a flourishing state. Nor is this circumstance so difficult to be accounted for, when all things are duly considered. This obstinacy was the effect of a rooted aversion to the Latins and their pontifs, that, acquired, from day to day, new degrees of strength and bitterness in the hearts of the Greeks: an aversion, produced and nourished by a persuasion that the calamities they suffered under the Turkish yoke might have been easily removed, if the western princes and the Roman pontifs had not refused to succour them against their haughty tyrants. And accordingly, when the Greek writers deplore the calamities that fell upon their devoted country, their complaints are always mingled with heavy accusations against the Latins, whose cruel insensibility to their unhappy situation they paint in the strongest and most odious colours.

tine divi

sions and

tins.

XIV. We pass over in silence many trifling The intes controversies among the Latins, which have no sort of claim to the attention of our readers. But contests we must not omit mentioning the revival of that of the La famous dispute concerning the kind of worship that was to be paid to the blood of CHRIST, which was first kindled at Barcelona, in the year 1351, between the Franciscans and Dominicans,

and

XV.

CENT. and had been left undecided by Clement VI. [d]. PART II. This controversy was now renewed at Brixen, in the year 1462, by Jacobus à Marchia, a celebrated Franciscan, who maintained publicly, in one of his sermons, that the blood which Christ shed upon the cross, did not belong to the divine nature, and of consequence was not to be considered as an object of divine and immediate worship. The Dominicans rejected this doctrine; and adopted with such zeal the opposite side of the question, that James of Brixen, who performed the office of inquisitor, called the Franciscan before his tribunal and accused him of heresy. The Roman pontif, Pius II. having made several ineffectual attempts to suppress this controversy, was at last persuaded to submit the matter to the examination and judgment of a select number of able divines. But many obstacles arose to prevent a final decision, among which we may reckon as the principal, the influence and authority of the contending orders, each of which had embarked with zeal in the cause of their respective champions. Hence, after much altercation and chicane, the pontif thought proper to impose silence on both the parties in this miserable dispute, in the year 1464; declaring, at the same time, that "both sides of the question might be lawfully

held, untii Christ's Vicar upon earth should find "leisure and opportunity for examining the mat"ter, and determining on what side the truth lay." This leisure and opportunity have not as yet been offered to the pontifs [e].

66

[d] Luc. WADDINGI Annal. Minor. tom. viii. p. 58.-Jac. ECHARDI Scriptor. Prædicator. tom. i. p. 650.

[e] WADDINGI Annal. Minor. tom. xiii. P. 206.-NAT. ALEXANDER, Hist. Eccles. Sæc. xv. p. 17.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

Concerning the rites and ceremonies that were used in the Church during this century.

XY.

Rites of the

1. THE state of religious ceremonies among CENT. the Greeks may be learned from the book PART II. of SIMEON of Thessalonica, Concerning Rites and Heresies [f], from which it appears, that the sub-Greek stance of religion was lost among that people; church. that a splendid shadow of pomp and vanity was substituted in its place by the rulers of the church; and that all the branches of divine worship were ordered in such a manner as to strike the imaginations and captivate the senses of the multitude. They pretended, indeed, to allege several reasons for multiplying, as they did, the external rites and institutions of religion; and casting over the whole of divine worship such a pompous garb of worldly splendour. But in these reasons, and in all the explications they give of this gaudy ritual, there is much subtilty and invention, without the least appearance of truth or good sense to render them plausible. The origin of these multiplied rites, that cast a cloud over the native beauty and lustre of religion, is often obscure, and frequently dishonourable. And such as, by force of ill-applied genius and invention, have endeavoured to derive honour to these ceremonies from the circumstances that gave occasion to them, have failed egregiously in this desperate attempt. The deceit is too palpable to seduce any mind that is void of prejudice and capable of attention.

II. Though

[f] J. A. FABRICIUS gives us an account of the contents of this book in his Biblioth. Græca. vol. xiv. p. 54.