CENTURY SEVENTH. PART I. THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. THE PROSPEROUS EVENTS OF THE CHURCH. 1. THE Christian religion was in this century diffused beyond its former bounds, both in the eastern and western countries. In the East the Nestorians, with incredible industry and perseverance, laboured to propagate it from Persia, Syria, and India, among the barbarous and savage nations inhabiting the deserts and the remotest shores of Asia; and that their zeal was not inefficient appears from numerous proofs still existing. In particular, the vast empire of China was enlightened by this zeal and industry with the light of Christianity. Those who regard as genuine and authentic that Chinese monument of Sigan, which was discovered in the seventeenth century, believe that Christianity was introduced into China in the year 636, when Jesujabas of Gadala presided over the Nestorian community. And those who look upon I This celebrated monument has been published and explained by several persons; in particular by Kircher, China Illustrata, p. 53; Müller, in a distinct treatise, Berlin, 1672, 4to; Renaudot, Relations Anciennes des Indes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahometans, p. 228-271, Paris, 1718, 8vo; Asseman, Biblioth. Oriental. Vatic. tom. iii. par. ii. cap. iv. sec. 7, p. 538, &c. A more accurate copy with notes was expected from the very learned Theoph. Sig. Bayer, much distinguished for his knowledge of Chinese literature. But his premature death frustrated the expectation. I see no reason why I should not regard this monument as genuine; nor can I conceive what advantage the Jesuits could have promised themselves from a fabrication of this sort. See Liron, Singularités Histor. et Littér. tome ii. p. 500, &c. [See also Tho. Yeates, Indian Church History, p. 85-96, Lond. 1818, 8vo. Kircher's translation of the inscription with a comment and some notes is given in the Appendix to Mosheim's Hist. Eccles. Tartarorum, p. 2-28. The monument is said to be a marble slab ten feet long and five broad; dug up in the year 1625 at a town near Sin-gan-fu, capital of the province Shen-si. The top of the slab is a pyramidal cross. The caption to the inscription consists of nine Chinese words formed into a square, and is thus translated: "This stone was erected to the honour and eternal memory of the Law of Light and Truth brought from Ta-cin [Judea or Syria], and promulgated in China." The principal inscription is in Chinese characters, and consists of twenty-eight columns, each containing sixty-two words. It first states the fundamental principles of Christianity, and then this as a fabrication of the Jesuits may be fully satisfied by other and unexceptionable proofs, that China, especially the northern part of it, contained in this century or perhaps even earlier, numerous Christians over whom presided, during several subsequent centuries, a metropolitan sent out by the patriarch of the Chaldeans or Nestorians.2 2. The attention of the Greeks was so engrossed with their intestine dissensions, that they were little solicitous about the propagation of Christianity among the heathen. In the West, among the Anglo years cious reception by the king, their labours and success, recounts the arrival of missionaries in 636, their graand the principal events of the mission for 144 years or till A.D. 780. There were two persecutions in the 699 and 713. Soon after the second persecution some new missionaries arrived. Then follow the date and erection of the monument in A.D. 782. On the one side of this principal inscription there is a column of Chinese characters; on the other side and at the bottom is a Syriac inscription in the Estrangelo character, with a bishop, arranged in seven different classes.-Mur. containing catalogues of priests, deacons, and others, [On this interesting monument, see also Milman's Gibbon's Decl. and Fall, &c. vol. viii. p. 347, with the editor's note in support of its authenticity.-R. 2 See Renaudot, ubi supra, p. 51, 68, &c. et passim ; Asseman, ubi supra, cap. ix. p. 522, &c. Bayer tells us (Præfat. ad Museum Sinicum, p. 81) that he possesses some testimonies which put the subject beyond controversy. [It is the constant tradition of the Syrian Christians that St. Thomas the apostle made an excursion to China; and the Christians of Malabar celebrate this event in their ordinary worship, and their primate styled himself metropolitan of Hindoo and China when the Portuguese first knew them. Yeates, Indian Church Hist. p. 71-84. See also M. de Guignes, Diss. in the 30th vol. (p. 802, &c.) of the Mémoires de Littérature, tirées des Registres de l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres: which contains a defence of the genuineness of the Sigan monument, against the objections of La Croze and Beausobre. Likewise Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. vol. xix. p. 291-298.-Mur. See 3 Yet Constantine Porphyrogenitus states, (de Administrando Imperio, cap. xxxi. in Bandurius' Imperium Orientale, p. 97, ed. Paris) that the Chrobates (the Croatians) who then inhabited Dalmatia, from which they had expelled the Avares, by order of Heraclius made application to that emperor for religious instructors; and that he procured priests for them from Rome, who baptized them, and one of them became their archbishop. See Semler's Selecta Cap. Hist. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 20; Lucius, De Regno Dalmatia, lib. i. cap. xi.; Muratori, Historia Italia; and Asseman, in Calendar. Eccles. Univ. tom. i. p. 499, &c.—Schl. Near the close of the century, in the year 690, Willibrord, by birth an Anglo-Saxon, accompanied with eleven of his countrymen, namely, Suidbert, Wigbert, Acca, Wilibald, Unibald, Lebwin, the two Ewalds, Werenfrid, Marcellin, and Adalbert, crossed over to Batavia lying opposite to Britain, with a view to convert the Frieslanders to Christianity. From thence they went in the year 692 to Fosteland, which most writers suppose to Saxons, Augustine till his death in 605, | St. Kilian, a Scotchman, converted a great and afterwards other monks sent from Rome, many to Christ among the [Franconians or] laboured to extend and enlarge the church. eastern Franks." And the result of their labours and efforts was, that the other six Anglo-Saxon kings who had hitherto continued in paganism, gradually came over to the side of Christianity, and all Britain became professedly Christian.' Yet we need not believe that this change was wholly owing to the sermons and exhortations of these Roman monks and teachers; a great part of it is rather to be ascribed to the Christian wives of the kings and chiefs, who employed various arts to convert their husbands; and likewise to the rigorous laws enacted against the worshippers of idols; not to mention other causes. 3. In this century many of the Britons, Scots, and Irish, eager to propagate the Christian religion, visited the Batavian, Belgic, and German tribes, and there founded new churches. It was this circumstance which led the Germans afterwards to erect so many monasteries for Scots and Irishmen, some of which are still in being.3 Columbanus, an Irishman, with a few companions, had already in the preceding century happily extirpated in Gaul and the contiguous regions the ancient idolatry, the roots of which had previously struck deep everywhere. He persevered in these labours till the year 615 in which his death is placed, and with the aid of his disciples carried the name of the Saviour to the Swabians, Bavarians, Franks, and other nations of Germany. St. Gall, one of his companions, imparted a knowledge of Christianity to the Helvetians and Swabians." 4 1 Bede, Hist. Eccles. gentis Anglor. lib. ii. cap. iii. p. 91, &c.; cap. xiv. p. 116; lib. iii. cap. xxi. p. 162. Ed. Chifflet; Rapin, Hist. d' Angleterre, tome i. p. 222, &c. 2 See Wilkins, Concilia Magna Britan. tom. i. p. 61. 3 See Acta Sanctor. tom. ii. Februar. p. 362. [Nearly all of these monasteries have been dissolved and secularized during the wars of the French Revolution. Almost the only one remaining, because too poor to be plundered, is that of St. James in the city of Ratisbon, founded by Irish monks in the beginning of the twelfth century, (Lanigan, Eccles. Hist. of Ireland, vol. iv. p. 57) but now occupied by Scottish Benedictines. When I visited this monastery in 1845 there were only the prior and two monks supported out of its diminished revenues.-R. 4 Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Benedicti, tom. ii. p. 560, &c.; tom. iii. p. 72, 339, 560, and elsewhere. Adamannus, lib. iii. De S. Columbano, in Canisius, Lectiones Antiqua, tom. 1. p. 674. [See a brief account of St. Columbanus above, p. 221, note 3.--Mur. Walafrid Strabo, Vita Sti Galli, in Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Benedicti, tom. ii. p. 228. [ed. Venice, p. 215, &c.] Canisius, Lectiones Antiqua, tom. i. p. 783. [St. Gall or St. Gallus was born in Ireland of religious parents, who early committed him to Columbanus for education. He became a monk of Bangor [near Belfast] under Columbanus, and was one of the twelve Irish monks who left Ireland with him about the year 589, travelled through England to the Continent, and erected the monastery of Luxeuil in Burgundy. When Columbanus was driven from this monastery twenty years after, St. Gall accompanied him in exile. Ascending the Rhine, they penetrated the heart of Switzerland about the year 610, and took residence among pagans at Tuggen, at the head of the lake of Zurich. Attacking idolatry St. Gall here burned the pagan temple, and cast their offerings into the lake. This enraged the people and the monks had to flee. Travelling through the Canton of St. Gall, they came to Arbon on the shores of the lake of Constance. Hero Willimar, the presbyter of the place, treated them kindly and aided them to form a settlement at Bregentz, at the eastern extremity of the lake. Here the monks attempted to convert the surrounding pagans, and were not without some success. But at the end of two years the unconverted procured an order from the duke for the monks to quit the country. Columbanus and the rest now retired to Bobbio in Italy, but St. Gall was left behind sick. When recoherents, and erected the monastery of St. Gall, in the canton of the same name. Here he spent the remainder of his days in great reputation and honour. He refused the bishopric of Constance, which he conferred on his pupil John. His monastery fourished much and spread light over the surrounding country. St. Gall died at Arbon, but was interred in his monastery at the age of ninety-five according to Mabillon. His sermon at the ordination of John at Constance and some epistles, are published by Canisius, ubi supra. His life by Strabo, from which this notice is extracted, thoug full of legendary tales is written in a far better style thing ordinary monkish biographies. It appears according to Strabo, that Switzerland was almost wholly pagan when first visited by Columbanus in 610; but that Christianity had then made considerable prog Germany, from the lake of Constance all along the right vered he retired into the wilderness with a few ad bank of the Rhine-Mur. ress in ii. P. he 6 Vita S. Kiliani, in Canisius, Lectiones Antiquæ, tom. iii. p. 171, &c.; de Ludewig, Scriptores rerum Wurtsburgens. p. 966. [See also the Life of St. Kilian in Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Benedict. tom 951-953, ed. Venice, 1733. According to the authori ties, St. Kilian, Chilian, Cylian, Cilian, or Kyllen a, was an Irishman of honourable birth and good education. In early life he had a great thirst for knowledge, and, being very pious and possessing a perfect knowledge of missionary enterprises, he planned one of his own. Taking with him Coloman, Gallon, and Arneval, presbyters, Donatus a deacon, and seven others, penetrated into Franconia which was wholly paga and took up his residence at Herbipolis or Würtzbur Finding their prospects good, Kilian, Coloman, an Totnan, went to Italy, to obtain the papal sanction t their enterprise; which having readily obtained from Conon (who was pope eleven months ending Sept. 686) they returned to Würtzburg, converted and baptized Gosbert, the duke, and a large number of his subjects. But afterwards, persuading the duke that it was unlawful for him to have his brother's wife, Geilan, she seized an occasional absence of her husband and murdered all the missionaries. This cruel act is placed in the year 696. But the massacre did not prevent the progress of Christianity; for the duchess became deranged, the assassins repented, and St. Kilian became the tutelar saint of Würtzburg-Mur. [See also Lanigan's Eccles. Hist. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 115, &c. Pagi (Crit. ad Bar. ad annum) places this martyrdom in 689.-R. d be the island of Heligoland. Being driven thence by Radbod, king of the Frieslanders, who put Wigbert, one of the company, to death, they wandered over Cimbria and the adjacent parts of Denmark. Returning to Friesland in the year 693, they attacked the superstition of the country with better success. Willibrord was now created by the Roman pontiff archbishop of Wilteburg [since called Utrecht], and died at an advanced age among the Batavians. His associates spread a knowledge of Christianity among the Westphalians and neighbouring nations.! 4. Of these and other expeditions undertaken for the extension of Christianity, an impartial man who adheres to truth will not speak in terms of indiscriminate praise. That some of these preachers were men of honest simplicity and piety no one can doubt. But most of them show manifest proofs of various sinful passions, of arrogance, avarice, and cruelty; and having received authority from the Roman pontiff to exercise their sacred functions among the barbarians, they did not so much collect holy congregations of devout Christians, as procure for themselves a people among whom they might act the part of sovereigns and lords. I cannot therefore strongly 1 Alcuin, Vita Willebrordi, in Mabillon, Acta Sunctor. Ord. Bened. tom. iii. p. 604, &c. [559, &c. ed. Venice] Möller's Cimbria Literata, tom. ii. p. 980, &c. [Bede, sionary was born in Northumberland about A.D. 659, of pious parents. Educated in the monastery of Ripon (Hripensis) Yorkshire, anciently in the kingdom of Northumbria, at the age of twenty he went to Ireland, where he studied twelve years. At the age of thirtythree he commenced his mission, and sailed up the Rhine to Utrecht in the dominions of Radbod, the pagan king of the Frisians. Soon after he went to France, and by advice of King Pepin visited Italy, and Returning to Utrecht he in vain attempted the conversion of Radbod and his subjects. Therefore proceeding northward, he landed at an island called Fositeland, which was on the confines of Denmark and Hist. Eccles. lib. v. cap. xi. xii. This famous mis obtained the sanction, of Pope Sergius to his enterprise. Friesland, and so sacred that its fruit, its animals, and even its waters were holy, and whoever profaned them was to be punished with death. Willibrord and his company wholly disregarded the sacredness of the place, violated the laws, were arraigned before Radbod who cast lots on their destiny, by which one was doomed to death and the others dismissed. They now penetrated into Denmark. On their return to the confines of France, Pepin, who in 693 had vanquished Radbod, sent Willibrord again to Italy to be consecrated archbishop of Utrecht. Pope Sergius now gave him the name of Clemens. Returning clothed with dignity, his friend Pepin aided him in his work; and for about fifty years from his leaving England, he laboured and with much success as the apostle of the Frieslanders. He died about the year 740 at the advanced age of 81. Thus far Alcuin's narrative goes. Of his followers it is said that the two Ewalds (the one called the white and the other the black Ewald) were put to death by a Saxon king, and their bodies cast into the Rhine; that Suidbert preached to the Bructeri near Cologne, and at last at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, where he died A.D. 713; that Willibald became bishop of Eichstadt in Bavaria, and Marcellin, bishop of the country along the IsselMur. censure those who suspect that some of these monks, being desirous of ruling, concealed for a time their vicious propensities under the veil of religion, and imposed upon themselves various hardships, that they might acquire the rank and honours of bishops and archbishops. 5. Of the Jews very few, if any, voluntarily embraced Christianity. But the Christians compelled many of them in different places, by means of penalties, to make an outward profession of belief in Christ. The emperor Heraclius being incensed against them, as is reported, by the influence of Christian doctors, made havoc of the miserable nation, and ordered vast numbers of them to be dragged reluctantly to baptism.2 The kings of Spain and Gaul had no hesitation to do the same, although the Roman pontiffs were opposed to it.3 Such evils resulted from ignorance of the true principles of Christianity, and from the barbarism of the age. CHAPTER II. ADVERSITIES OF THE CHURCH. 1. THE Christians suffered less in this century than in the preceding ones. By the Persian kings they were at times persecuted, but the rage against them soon subsided. In England some of the petty kings oppressed the new converts to Christianity; but soon after these kings themselves became professed Christians. In the East, especially in Syria and Palestine, the Jews sometimes rose upon the Christians with great violence; yet so unsuccessfully as to suffer severely for their temerity. Those living among the Christians, who secretly consulted about restoring the pagan religion, were too weak to venture on any positive measures. 2. But a new and most powerful adversary of Christianity started up in Arabia, A.D. 612, in the reign of Heraclius. Mohammed was indeed an illiterate man, but 5 2 Eutychius, Annales Eccles. Alexandr. tom. ii. p. 212, &c. 3 See some authorities on this subject, quoted by Baronius, Annales, ad ann. 614, sub fin. tom. viii. p. 239, &c. Ed. Antw. 1800.-Mur. 4 Eutychius, Annales, tom. ii. p. 236, &c. Hottinger, Hist. Orientalis, lib. i. c. iii. p. 129, &c. 5 Mohammed himself professed to be destitute of science and learning, and even to be unable to read and write; and his followers have deduced from this his ignorance an argument for the divinity of the religion which he taught. But it is hardly credible that he was so rude and ignorant a man. And there are some among his adherents who question the reality of the fact. See Chardin, l'oyages en Perse, tome iv. p. 33, 34. Indeed, when I consider that Mohammed for a long time pursued a gainful commerce in Arabia and the adjacent countries, I think he must have been able to read and write, and cast accounts; for merchants cannot dispense with this degree of knowledge. [Mosheim S of noble birth, naturally eloquent, and | tories over his enemies he compelled an He immense multitude possessing great acuteness of mind.1 of persons, first in proclaimed that he was sent by God to overthrow all polytheism; and also to purge and reform, first, the religions of the Arabs, and next, those of the Jews and the Christians; and having framed a law which is called the Koran,2 after gaining some vic here reasons in the very manner which he himself condemns; viz. such a thing does not occur at this day, and therefore it did not in ancient times. See the Introd. sec. 19, p. 6, above.) According to the Koran and all the Mohammedan writers, the times preceding Mohammed were times of ignorance among the Arabs. The tribe of Hamyar in Yemen had indeed for some centuries possessed a rude alphabet; but the use of it was not publicly taught nor suffered except with special permission. The Arab Jews and Christians likewise undoubtedly used letters, but all the pagan Arabs of the Ishmaelitish stock, including the tribe of Koreish, as well as of others, were without letters previously to the introduction of the Cufic character in which the Koran was first written. This alphabet was invented at Cufah in Irak, a little before the times of Mohammed, and was first taught at Mecca, as it is said, by Bashar the Kendian, just before the institution of the Mohammedan religion. See Sale's Koran, Prelim. Diss. scc. 1, p. 35. Hence the best educated men in his tribe, up to the time he appeared, were unable to read and write; and much more the camel drivers and the men in active life, such as Mohammed was. Though of noble birth he was an orphan child, whose whole patrimony was five camels and a female slave. His uncle, Abu Taleb, who brought him up, twice sent him in his caravan to Syria, first when he was thirteen, and then when about twenty years old. In the interval, he went on a military expedition against a neighbouring tribe. And this is all we know of him till the age of twenty-five when he was recommended to a rich widow of Mecca, named Cadijah, to be her factor; and she sent him in that capacity to Damascus and the adjacent parts of Syria. On his return she gave him her hand and her fortune, and he became an opulent citizen of Mecca. This was about twelve years before he assumed the character of a prophet. Now that such a man should be among the very first in Mecca to learn the use of letters is not to be expected. Much less can we infer from his occupation, that he must have been able to read and write. That he employed his son-in-law Ali as his scribe in committing the Koran to writing is the constant testimony of his followers. And that he should appeal in that book to his own ignorance of letters as proof that he did not write it out and polish it in his closet, seems to be good evidence of such ignorance. For his intimate acquaintances must have known whether that ignorance was real or not; and as most of them were slow to admit his pretensions to a divine mission, it cannot be supposed he would jeopardize his reputation as a man of veracity and of common sense, by referring them to what they knew to be false as good evidence of his inspiration. See Sale's Koran, chap. i. vol. i. p. 192, and chap. xxix. vol. ii. p. 256. See also Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. i. note 70, vol. v. p. 147, &c. And on the other side, White's Bampton Lectures, p. 203, 204, and notes 26-38, also Bush's Life of Mohammed, p. 38, 39.-Mur. I The writers on his life and religion are enumerated by Fabricius, Delectus et Syllabus Argumentor. pro veritate relig. Christ. cap. i. p. 733, &c. To which may be added Count Boulainvilliers, Piede Mahomet, Lond. 1730, 8vo, which however is rather a romance than a history; Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, 2 vols. 12mo, Amsterd. 1732, commendable for the ingenuousness of the author, yet the style is dry; and George Sale, a distinguished and very judicious author, in his preliminary discourse prefixed to his version of the Koran, sec. ii. [p. 45, &c. ed. Lond. 1825; Prideaux, Life of Mahomet, 1697, 8vo; Bayle, Dictionnaire, art. Mahomet, Rees Cyclopædia, art. Mahomet; Abulfeda, Annales Muslem. Arab. and Lat. 2 vols. 4to, Copenh. 1790; Abulfeda, de Vita et Rebus Gestis Mohammedis, Arab. and Lat. Oxon. 1723; Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. vol. xix. p. 327-405.-Mur. Arabia and then in the neighbouring countries, to profess his doctrines. Elated with this unexpected success, he now began to think of founding an empire, and he effected his object with as much success as boldness; so that at his death, he saw himself the sovereign of all Arabia, and of several of the neighbouring countries. 3. No one can at this day form a perfect judgment of the entire character, views, and designs of Muhammed. For we cannot safely rely on the Greek writers, who made no hesitation to load their enemy with slanders and falsehoods; nor can we trust to the Arabians, who are the very worst historians, who conceal all his vices and crimes, and depict him as altogether a divine person. Besides, a very considerable part of his life, and that too from which 2 For an account of the Koran see, in preference to all others, Sale's Preliminary Discourse prefixed to his English version of that book. Add Vertot, Discours sur l'Alcoran, annexed to the third volume of his Hist. des Chevaliers de Malte; Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tome ii. p. 281, new ed. The book which the Mohammedans call the Koran, is a collection of papers and discourses discovered and published after the death of Mohammed, and is not that Law which he so highly extolled. Perhaps some parts of the true Koran are still found in the modern Koran; but that the Koran or Law which Mohammed prescribed to the Arabians differed from the present Koran, is manifest from the fact that Mahommed in our Koran appeals to and extols that other the true Koran. A book which is commended and extolled in any writing, must certainly be different from that in which it is commended. May we not conjecture that the true Koran was an Arabic poem which Mahommed recited to his adherents, and wished them to commit to memory, but which he did not write out? Such it is well known were the laws of the Gallic Druids; and such is said to be that Indian law which the Brahmins learn and preserve in their memories. [These conjectures of Mosheim appear wholly without foundation. There is no reason to believe there ever was a Koran essentially different from that we now have; or that Mohammed declined committing his pretended revelations to writing. The only argument adduced by Mosheim is of no force at all, considering the manner in which the Koran came into existence. The book itself professes to have been composed by God in the highest heavens; and thence sent down to the lower heavens by the angel Gabriel, who communicated it by parcels to Mohammed during the twenty-three years that he claimed to be a prophet. Morcover, the parcels revealed last often revoked or modified what had been revealed before, and likewise replied to the objections of infidels against the book. See Sale's Koran, vol. i. chap. vi. p. 159, and vol. ii. chap. x. p. 31; chap. xvi. p. 107; chap. xxv. p. 213; chap. xcvii. p. 497. The Mohammedan doctors say the Koran existed together with the decrees of God, from all eternity, engraven on a table of stone hard by the throne of God, and called the Preserved table; that God sent the angel Gabriel with a transcript of the entire Koran down to the lowest heavens, where during twenty-three years he revealed it by parcels to Mohammed; that Mohammed caused these parcels to be written down by his scribe as they were received, and published them at once to his followers; some of whom took copies, while the greater part got them by heart; that the original MSS. of the scribe when returned were thrown promiscuously into a chest, whence they were taken after the prophet's death and published collectively in their present form and order, which is wholly without regard to dates or a classification of subjects. See Sale's Prelim. Discourse, sec. ill. p. 77-95.--Mur. the Syrians, the Persians, and other nations of the East, gave a bold and eloquent man easy control over the minds of immense numbers. We may add, that the virulent contests among the Christians, Greeks, Nestorians. Eutychians, and Monophysites, which filled a large part of the East with carnage and horrible crimes, rendered their religion odious in the eyes of many. And further, the Monophysites and Nestorians whom the Greeks oppressed most grievously, gave assistance to the Arabians, and facilitated their conquest of certain provinces, and thus secured the preponderance of their sects in those regions. Other causes will readily suggest themselves to those who consider attentively the state of the world, and the character of the Mohammedan religion. the motives and secret springs of his conduct | Moreover, the consummate ignorance which would best appear, lies concealed from us. characterized for the most part the Arabians, It is very probable however, that abhorrence of the superstition in which he saw his countrymen involved, so wrought upon him as to throw him into a disordered state of mind; and that he really believed he was divinely commissioned to reform the religion of the Arabs, and reinstate among them the worship of the one true God. But it is also certain, that afterwards when he saw his attempts attended with success, he deluded the fickle and credulous multitude with impious tricks and impositions, in order to strengthen his cause; and even feigned divine revelations whenever occasion seemed to require it, or any great difficulty occurred. Nor was this fraud inconsistent with his being a fanatic; for most fanatics think deception, so far as seems necessary to their designs, to be holy and approved of God; and they of course resort to deception when they can do it safely. The religion which he inculcated is not what it would have been, if his designs had not been opposed. The pertinacity with which the Arabians adhered to the opinions and customs of their ancestors, and the hope of gaining over the Jews and the Christians to his cause, undoubtedly led him to approve and tolerate many things, which he would have rejected and abrogated if he had been at liberty to pursue his own choice. 1 4. The causes of the rapid propagation of this new religion among so many nations, are not difficult to be discovered. In the first place, the terror of arms which Mohammed and his successors carried with great success into different countries, compelled vast multitudes to receive his law. In the next place, his law itself was admirably adapted to the natural dispositions of men, and especially to the manners, opinions, and vices prevalent among the people of the East: for it was extremely simple, proposing very few things to be believed, nor did it enjoin many and difficult duties to be performed, or such as laid severe restraints on the propensities of men. 2 1 In my judgment this is the best way of deciding the controversy which has been agitated by learned men of our age; whether Mohammed was a fanatic or an impostor? See Bayle, Dictionnaire, tome iii. article, Mahomet, note k; Ockley, Conquest of Syria, Persia, and Egypt, by the Saracens, vol. 1. p. 68, Lond. 1708, 8vo; Sale, Prelim. Discourse to his translation of the Koran, sec. 2, [p. 53, &c. ed. Lond. 1825; Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. vol. xix. p. 380, &c.-Mur. 2 See Reland, De Religione Mahumedica, lib. ii. Utrecht, 1717, 12mo; Sale, Prelim. Dissert. to the Koran, sec. 4, 5, 6; More, Dictionary of all Religions, article, Mahometans, ed. 1817; Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. vol. xix. p. 356, &c.; Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 475, 8th ed.-Mur. Nor 5. After the death of Mohammed in the year 632, his followers issuing forth from Arabia, with their native fortitude stimulated by a furious fanaticism, and aided as has been already observed by those Christians who were persecuted by the Greeks, extended their conquests over Syria, Persia, Egypt, and some other countries. could the Greeks, harassed with intestine commotions and various wars, put forth sufficient energy to check their rapid career. The victors at first used their prosperity with moderation, and were very indulgent towards the Christians, especially to those who opposed the decrees of Ephesus and Chalcedon. But, as is common with those enjoying uninterrupted success, they in. sensibly swerved from this moderation into severity, and so loaded the Christians with taxes and other burdens and injuries, that their condition resembled more that of slaves than that of citizens." 3 See Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandr. p. 163, and the prevalence of a Christianized idolatry ought also Isaac 169, [and Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c. chap. li. where 4 See Ockley, Conquest of Syria by the Saracens, vols. i. and ii. 8vo. Also Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c. chap. 1. li.-Mur. 5 Mohammed framed the Koran to be the basis of civil government as well as of religion among his followers; and in all ages they have so regarded it till the present time. Church and state, religion and civil policy are so united and blended by the Koran, that |