XII. PART II.

remission of all the temporal pains and penalties, c E N T. which the church had annexed to certain transgressions. They went still farther; and not only remitted the penalties, which the civil and ecclesiastical laws had enacted against transgressors, but audaciously usurped the authority which belongs to God alone, and impiously pretended to abolish even the punishments which are reserved in a future state for the workers of iniquity; a step this, which the bishops, with all their avarice and presumption, had never once ventured to take [w].

The pontifs first employed this pretended prerogative in promoting the holy war, and shed abroad their indulgences, though with a certain' degree of moderation, in order to encourage the European princes to form new expeditions for the conquest of Palestine; but, in process of time, the charm of indulgences was practised upon various occasions of much less consequence, and merely with a view to filthy lucre [x]. Their introduction, among other things, destroyed the credit and authority of the ancient canonical and ecclesiastical discipline of penance, and occasioned the removal and suppression of the penitentials [y] by which the reins were let loose to every kind of vice. Such proceedings stood much in need of a plausible defence, but this was impossible. To justify therefore these scandalous measures of the pontits,

G 3

[w] MORINUS, De administratione sacramenti pœnitentiæ, lib. x. cap. xx, xxi, xxii. p. 768.-RICH SIMON, Biblioth. Critique, tom. iii. cap. xxxiii. P. 371.—MABILLON, Præf. ad Acta Sanctor. Sæc. v. Acta Sanctor. Benedict. p. 54. not to speak of the protestant, writers, whom I designedly pass over.

[x] MURATORI Antiq. Italic. medii ævi, tam. v. p. 761.— FRANC. PAGI Breviar, Rom. Pontif, tom. ii. p. 60.-THEOD. RUINARTI Vita Urbani II. p. 231. tom. iii. Opp. Posthum.

[y] The Penitential was a book, in which the degree and kind of penance that were annexed to each crime, were register

ed.

Xil.

PART II.

CENT. pontifs, a most monstrous and absurd doctrine was new invented, which was modified and embellished by St THOMAS in the following century, and which contained among others the following enormities,." That there actually existed an immense treasure of merit, composed of the

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pious deeds, and virtuous actions, which the "saints had performed beyond what was necessary "for their own salvation [x], and which were "therefore applicable to the benefit of others; "that the guardian and dispenser of this precious treasure was the Roman pontif; and that of consequence he was empowered to assign to "such as he thought proper, a portion of this "inexhaustible source of merit, suitable to their respective guilt, and sufficient to deliver them "from the punishment due to their crimes." It is a most deplorable mark of the power of superstition, that a doctrine, so absurd in its nature, and so pernicious in its effects, should yet be retained and defended in the church of Rome [a].

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V. Nothing was more common in this century than expositors and interpreters of the sacred writings; but nothing was so rare, as to find, in that class of authors, the qualifications that are essentially required in a good commentator. Few of these expositors were attentive to search after the true signification of the words employed by the

[] These works are known by the name of Works of Supererogation.

[a] For a satisfactory and ample account of the enormous doctrine of indulgences, see a very learned and judicious work, entitled, Lettres sur les Jubilés, published in the year 1751, in three volumes 8vo, by the Reverend Mr CHAIS, minister of the French church in the Hague, on occasion of the universal Jubilee celebrated at Rome the preceding year, by the order of BENEDICT XIV. In the 2d volume of this excellent work, which we shall have frequent occasion to consult in the course of this history, there is a clear account and a satisfactory refutation of the doctrine in question, as also the history of that monstrous, practice from its origin to the present tintes.

.i

XII. PART II.

the sacred writers, or to investigate the precise C EN T. sense in which they were used; and these few were destitute of the succours which such researches demand. The Greek and Latin commentators, blinded by their enthusiastic love of antiquity, and their implicit veneration for the doctors of the early ages of the church, drew from their writings, without discernment of choice, a heap of passages, which they were pleased to consider as illustrations of the holy scriptures. Such were the commentators of EuTHYMIUS ZIGABENUS, an eminent expositor among the Greeks, upon the Psalms, Gospels, and Epistles; though it must, at the same time, be acknowledged, that this writer follows, in some places, the dictates of his own judgment, and gives, upon certain occasions, proofs of penetration and genius. Among the Latins, we might give several examples of the injudicious manner of expounding the divine word that prevailed in this century, such as the Lucubrations of PETER LOMBARD, GILBERT DE LA POREE, and the famous ABELARD, upon the Psalms of DAVID, and the Epistles of St PAUL. Nor do these commentators among the Latins, who expounded the whole of the sacred writings, and who are placed at the head of the expositors of this age, such as GILBERT, bishop of London, surnamed the Universal, on account of the vast extent of his erudition [b], and HERVEY, a most studious Benedictine monk [c], deserve a higher place in our esteem, than the authors already mentioned. The writers that merit the preference among the Latins are Ru

[b] For an account of this prelate, seë LE BOEUF, Memoires concernant l'Histoire d'Auxerre, tom. ii. p. 486..

[c] An ample account of this learned Benedictine is to be found in GABR. LIRON, Singularites Historiques et Litteraires, tom. iii. p. 29. See also MABILLON, Annales Benedict, tom. vi. p. 477. 719.

PARTI

CEN T.PERT of Duytz, and ANSELM of Laon; the former XII. of whom expounded several books of scripture, and the latter composed, or rather compiled, a glossary upon the sacred writings. As to those doctors who were not carried away by an enthusiastical veneration for the ancients, who had courage enough to try their own talents, and to follow the dictates of their own sagacity, they were chargeable with defects of another kind; for, disregarding and overlooking the beautiful simplicity of divine truth, they were perpetually bent on the search of all sorts of mysteries in the sacred writings, and were constantly on the scent after some hidden meaning in the plainest expressions of scripture. The people called Mystics excelled peculiarly in, this manner of expounding; and forced, by their violent explications, the word of God into a conformity with their visionary doctrines, their enthusiastic feelings, and the system of discipline which they had drawn from the excursions of their irregular fancies. Nor were the commentators, who pretended to logic and philosophy, and who, in effect, had applied themselves to these profound sciences, free from the contagion of mysticism in their explications of scripture. They followed, on the contrary, the example of these fanatics, as may be seen by HUGH of St VICTOR'S Allegorical Exposition of the Old and New Testament, by the Mystical Ark of RICHARD of St VICTOR, and by the Mystical Commentaries of GUIBERT, abbot of Nogent, on Obadiah, Hosea, and Amos [d]; not to mention several other writers, who seem to have been animated by the same spirit.

'The manner of

VI. The most eminent teachers of theology resided at Paris, which city was, from this time teaching theology forward, frequented by students of divinity

that now

prevailed.

from

[a] The Prologus in Abdiam has been published by MABILLON, in his Annales Benedict, tom. vi, p. 637.

XII.

from all parts of Europe, who resorted thither in C EN T crowds, to receive instruction from these cele-PART. H. brated masters. The French divines were divided into different sects. The first of these sects, who were distinguished by the title of The Ancient Theologists, explained the doctrines of religion, in a plain and simple manner, by passages drawn from the holy scriptures, from the decrees of councils, and the writings of the ancient doctors, and very rarely made use of the succours of reason or philosophy in their theological lectures. In this class we place St BERNARD, PETER Surnamed the Chanter, WALTER of St VICTOR, and other doctors, who declared an open and bitter war against the philosophical divines. The doctors, which were afterwards known by the name of Positive and Sententiarii, were not in all respects, different from these now mentioned. Imitating the examples of ANSELM, archbishop of Canterbury, LANFRANC, HILDEBERT, and other doctors of the preceding century, they taught and confirmed their system of theology, principally by collecting the decisions of the inspired writers, and the opinions of the ancients. At the same time they were far from rejecting the succours of reason, and the discussions of philosophy, to which they more especially had recourse, when difficulties were to be solved, and adversaries to be refuted, but, in the application of which, all did not discover the same degree of moderation and prudence. HUGH of St Victor is supposed to have been the first writer of this century, who taught in this manner the doctrines of Christianity, digested into a regular system. His example, however, was followed by many; but none acquired such a shining reputation by his labours, in this branch of sacred erudition, as PETER, bishop of Paris, surnamed LOMBARD, from the country which gave him birth. The Four books

of