PART II. CENT. of these fanatics professed to believe in a double XII. 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 1. 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 render it extremely probable, that many persons of eminent piety, and zeal for genuine 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 Secta Massalianorum in Jac. Tollii Insignibus Itineris Italici. p. 106.-125. PART II. chiles [m], as the Latins comprehended all the ad- CENT. versaries of the Roman pontiff under the general 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 cha racter. miles, II. From the sect now mentioned, that of the The BogoBogomiles is said to have proceeded, whose founder 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 sig nify 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 Mosheim to the Massalians of the twelfth century. See August, De Hæres, cap. lvii. and Theod. Harat. 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. PART II. CENT. that his doctrine resembled, in a striking manner, XII. the religious system of the ancient Gnostics and Manichæans; though at the same time, it is possible that the Greeks may have falsified his tenets, in some respects. Basilius maintained, that the world and all animal bodies were formed, not by the Deity, but by an evil demon, who had been cast down from heaven by the Supreme Being; from whence he concluded, that the body was no more than the prison of the immortal spirit, and that it was, therefore, to be enervated by fasting, contemplation, and other exercises, that so the soul might be gradually restored to its pri mitive liberty; for this purpose also wedlock was to be avoided, with many other circumstances which we have often had occasion to explain and repeat in the course of this history. It was in consequence of the same principles, that this unfortunate enthusiast denied the reality of Christ's body, which, like the Gnostics and Manichæans, he considered only as a phantom, rejected the law of Moses, and maintained that the body, upon its separation by death, returned to the malignant mass of matter, without either the prospect or possibility of a future resurrection to life and felicity. We have so many examples of fanatics of this kind in the records of ancient times, and also in the history of this century, that it is by no means to be wondered, that some one of them more enterprising than the rest should found a sect among the Greeks. The name of this sect was taken from the divine mercy, which its members are said to have incessantly implored; for the word bogomilus, in the Mysian language, signifies calling out for mercy from above [e]. III. The [n] See Anna Comnena Alexiados, lib. xv. p. 384. edit. Veneta.-Zonaras Annalium, lib. xviii. p. 336.-Jo. Christ. Wolf, Historia Bogomilorum, published at Witteberg, in 4to, XII. PART II. the abuses III. The Latin sects were yet more numerous CENT. than those of the Greeks, and this will not appear at all surprising to such as consider the state of religion in the greatest part of the European pro- The Latin vinces. The reign of superstition, the vices of sects and the clergy, the luxury and indolence of the pon-from tiffs and bishops, the encouragement of impiety whence by the traffic of indulgences, increasing from day sprung. they to day, several pious, though weak men, who had the cause of Christ and of his religion at heart easily perceived that both were in a most declin ing and miserable state, and therefore attempted a reformation in the church, in order to restore Christianity to its primitive purity and lustre. But the knowledge of these good men was' not equal to their zeal, nor were their abilities in any proportion to the grandeur of their undertakings. The greatest part of them were destitute both of learning and judgment, and involved in the general ignorance of the times, understood but very imperfectly the holy scriptures, from whence Christianity was derived, and by which the abuses that had been mingled with it could only be reformed. In a word, few of these well-meaning Christians were equal to an attempt so difficult and arduous as an universal reformation; and the consequence of this was, that while they avoided the reigning abuses, they fell into others that were as little consistent with the genius of true religion, and carried the spirit of censure and reformation to such an excessive length, that it degenerated often into the various extravagancies of enthusiasm, and engendered a number of new sects, that became a new dishonour to the Christian cause. IV. Among 1712. Sam. Andreæ Diss. Bogomilis in Jo. Voigtii Biblio theca Historia Hæresiologica, tom. i. part II. p. 121. Chr, Aug. Heumanni Dissertat, de Bogomilis. XII. PART II. ri. CENT. IV. Among the sects that troubled the Latin church during this century, the principal place is due to the Catharists, whom we have had already The Cath- occasion to mention [o]. This numerous faction, leaving their first residence, which was in Bulgaria, spread themselves throughout almost all the European provinces, where they occasioned much tumult and disorder; but their fate was unhappy; for, wherever they were caught, they were put to death with the most unrelenting cruelty [p] Their religion resembled the doctrine of the Manichæans and Gnostics, on which account they commonly received the denomination of the former, though they differed from the genuine and primitive Manichæans in many respects. They all indeed agreed in the following points of doctrine viz. That matter was the source of all evil; that the Creator of this world was a being distinct from the Supreme Deity; that Christ was not clothed with a real body, neither could be properly said to have been born, or to have seen death; that human bodies were the pro duction of the evil principle; and that baptism and the Lord's Supper were useless institutions, destitue of all efficacy and power. They exhorted all who embraced their doctrine to a rigorous abstinence from animal food, wine, and wedlock, and recommended to them in the most pathetic terms the most severe acts of austerity and mor tification. They moreover treated with the ut most contempt all the books of the Old Testament, but expressed a high degree of veneration for the New, particularly for the Four Gospels; and, [o] See Cent. III. Part II. Ch. V. sect. XVIII. but principally for that sort of Catharists here mentioned, see above Cent. XI. Part II. Ch. V. sect. II. [P] See the accounts given of this unhappy and persecuted sect by Charles Plessis D'Argentre, in his Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, tom. i. in which, however, several circumstances are omitted. |