Origines ecclesiasticæ (Antiquities of the Christian Church) Volume 7 [7]

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.

PRINCETON.

N.

J.

Part of the

ADDISON ALKXANDKR LIBRAKV, wliiih

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wan presented by ANP .\. Ptl'art.

MEiSrtM. a. L.

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L LBRA.R Y OK Tin;

Theological Seminary, PlilNCETON, ^.^^^

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N.J.

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BR 75 .B6 1834 v. 7 Bingham, Joseph, 1668-172 Origines ecclesiastic

vi^.

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^i^dlrtcV*^*'^

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.

iii.

n.O.

do

Ilierctlcis, leg. 7, 9, II.

THE AUTHOR of a penitent

he considers

life it

and

:

I

S

PREFACE.

am of opinion,

ag-ain, will

reckon

Xvil

this g-entlenian,

this

such another

when

slip as

Index H(sreticus\ which arc but small failings in comparison of what 1 have now further to object against his Index, which turns Catholics into Heretics in several instances both of former and

later ag"es.

Among- the ancients he does g-reat injustice to Eustathius, the famous Bishop of Antioch. For in giving- an account of the Eustathian Heretics, he says, " The Eustathians were the

spawn of the Sabellian heresy, and had of Antioch, who was

name from Eustathius Bishop deposed in a council held in his own their

city, about the middle of the Fourth Century, for holding those principles," I take no notice of his parachronism in saying, that he was

deposed in the Council of Antioch about the middle of the Fourth Century for though we cannot well call the year 327 or 329, when that Council was held, the middle of the :

Fourth Century yet this is but a small mistake, into which he might easily be led by Baronius or the corrupt copies of ;

Athanasius and

St, Jerom, which place that Council in the reign of Constantius, instead of Constantino, as the best critics, Valesius,* Gothofred,t Pagi,| and Dr. Cave, are ||

and as appears plainly from all the historians, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Philostorgius. But the thing, I complain of, is this, that he makes this Eustathius a Sabellian, and his followers a spawn of the Sabellian heresy. Whereas, in truth, he was the great defender of the Catholic fully

agreed

faith against

;

the Arian

heresy

the Council itself translated

in

the

Council of Nice:

him from Beraea to Antioch opened the Council with a

;

and he was the

first

man

that

panegyrical oration to Constantino

;

as this Author, for-

• Vales. Annot. ad Euseb. de Vit. Const, lib. iii. cap. 69. + Gothofred. Dissert, in Philostorg. lib. ii. cap. 7. J Pagi. Critic, in Baron, an. 327. n. 3. & 340. n. 18. Cave. Histor. Literar. vol. i. ||

p. 139.

VOL. VH.

b

XVm

THF.

g-etting-

AUTHOR

himself, fairly

owns

PREFACE.

«?

in his

account of the Eig-ht

General Councils, p. 476. Athanasius g-ives him this character, that he was a noble confessor and orthodox in the (mXh,Ti]vTThiv tv(Tijii]c, and exceeding- zealous for the truth.*

How

then could he be a Sabellian, unless Sabeliianism was

the true faith, and Athanasius a Sabellian also this matter a

and

To open

?

further, and undeceive this g-entleman

little

his readers also:

this

Eustathius was only abused

in

and malice by the Arians, who were his implacable enemies, because he was a resolute defender of the Nicene faith against them. They therefore endeavoured to make him odious, by falsely charg-inghis character out of spite

him with Sabeliianism, and several other crimes, upon the strength of which calumnies they deposed him in one of their

own Councils

SozomenJ

Socratest and

at Anlioch.

say expressly, that this Council of Antioch was an Arian

Council that deposed Eustathius, upon a pretence, that he Wfts more a defender of the Sabellian doctrine, than of the

Nicene faith. Which was an usual trick of the Arians, whereby they endeavoured to undermine Athanasius also. No\V this being only a mere calumny aind slander of so great a man, imposed upon him by his professed enemies, the Arians,

it

does not become any one,

who

takes upon

him to give unlearned readers an account of the ancient heresies, to fix this character ii])on him, without giving some authority, or at least an intimation, that he

only

an Arian Council.

was deposed

do not suppose

this gentleman had any ill design in what he wrote about this matter; but he was either imposed upon by some modern historian, or in

I

did not suflicienlly consider what he found delivered by

ancient writers.

Which should make him

tious for the future

more cau-

what guides he follows, and

* Athanas. Epist. ad Soliliirins.

cap. il.

the

J Hozoin.

t.

i.

p. 812.

lili. '2.

vn\>.

learn to

f Socrat. Il>.

lib.

I.

;

THE AUTHOR

S

PREFACE.

xix

when he

write with judgment,

takes upon him the office of an historian for such as cannot contradict him. He commits the same fault in giving an account of the

Essenes, "

Who, he

says,

were a sect of Christian hereSt. Mark." Now there

at Alexandria in the time of

tics

seems

to

be a httle more of wilful mistake

For he

in this.

could not be ignorant, whilst he was transcribing

my

Ori-

gines, that I

had alleged the authority of Epiphanius,

Eusebius, and

St.

to

Jerom, to shew, that they believed them be the Orthodox Church, and not a sect of Christian

Mark and he himself Epitome, refers his readers to these authorities also. I said further, which he leaves out, that some learned modern writers, such as Valesius, Scaliger, and Dallseus

heretics at Alexandria in the time of St.

:

in his

whether they were Christians whilst Bishop Beverege and others maintain the common opinion. But question,

all

;

agree that they were not a sect of Christian hereticks

however

this

Author came

to despise all authority,

ancient and modern, in fixing that character upon

For

if

both

them.

they were heretics, they belonged to the Jews, and

not to the Christians. In

modern

his accounts of

have spared

much more memory of

in

heretics,

which he might

a book of Ecclesiastical Antiquities, he

is

injurious to the reader, as well as to the pious

many excellent men, and to when he puts the AlbiBohemians, the Lollards, the Wal-

great numbers of

the Protestant cause in general,

genses, the Hussites or

denses, and the Wicklevites heretics

;

ascribing to

all

into

his

black

them such monstrous

they were certainly never guilty

of,

sius

who treated them

and Eustathius

in

of

but only stood falsely

charged with them by the implacable malice of adversaries,

list

opinions as

their

Romish

just as the Arians did Athana-

former ages.

It

might have become

a Protestant Heresiologist and Historian, either to have omitted these names, or at least to have told his readers

b2

THK AUTHOR

XX

what

t'xcf lloiit vinilications

S

and

PREPACK. ajiolog^ios liavo

been written

by iho most Learned Protestant Anthors of the two

character of those black and odious im-

ag-es, to clear their

putations, which

he was very

tioDS,

in

all justice,

into

still,

of these vindica-

qualified to act the part of an Histo-

if

he did know them,

in

concealing- from his readers what

who were

laid before

my

ill

nothing;-

he was more

both to them, and the Church, and the

of the Saints,

have

he knew

If

this case:

unpardonable

adversaries falsely and industriously

their

threw upon them.

rian

last

them.

in

memory

so traduced, he ought carefully to If

he had

thougflit

fit

to

have looked

Scholastical History of Baptism, as carefully as he

has done into the Origines. he mig-ht there liave found the venerable names of some of those worthy men, who have done justice to the protestant cause, in vindicating- those witnesses of the truth from the false aspersions that are cast

upon them.

For

his

and the

transcribe them, with a

little

once more and more particular

truth's sake, I will

addition,

reference to the books and places containing- those vindications.

Crankanthorp. Defensio Ecclesiae Anglicanae contra Spalatensem, cap. 18.

p. 100.

Usserius de Christianarum Ecclesiarum Statu, cap. 10. quae est de

Albigensium

Suecessione

et

et aliorum, qui

Ec-

deW

ick-

clesiaj pontificia> adversati sunt, historia.

Albertinusdo Eueharistia,Lib. levistis,

Sir

iii.

p.U7G. ubi agit

Waldensibus, Lollardis, Taboritis sive Bohemis.

Samuel

INIorland.

History of the Evangelical Churches

of the \'alleys of Piedmont, Lond. 1058. Dr. Alli.\ History of the Albigenses,

fol.

Lond. 1GD2.

4lo. 2

Vol.

Joachim Hesterberg de Ecclesia Waldcnsium. Argent. 1668.

-Ito.

I*anl

Perrin.

Lond. 1624.

Ito.

History

of

the

Albigeois and

Vaudois.

THE author's preface.

xxi

Waldensia, sive conservatio Verse Ecex confossionibus Taboritarum et Bohemoriim, 2 Vol. Roterod. 1616,8vo. BalthasarLydius.

clesise detnonstrata

Cave. Historia Literaria. In eonspeeta saeculi Waldensis siveDuodeeimi. Dr. Thomas James's Apolog-y for John Wickliffe, shewing his conformity with the

now Church

of England,

Oxon.

1608, 4to.

Henry Maurice'sVindication of the Prim. Church, p. 374, Bohemorum. Hag-ae. 1660. Hen. Wharton Appendix ad Cave Hist. Literar. p. 50. in

Dr.

Ratio. Disciplinaj Fratrum

vita Joan.

The

Wicklef.

p. 50.

Life of Wickliffe,

•

by a

late

-

'

'

-

Author. Lond. 8v6.

Comenii Historia persecutionum Ecclesiae Bohemicai. Lug. Bat. 1647. 8vo. It.

Historia Ecclesiae Slavonic. &c.

Anton. Leger.

Histoire Vaudois des Eglises des Vallees

de Piedmont, Lug. Bat.

166!J. fol.

Waldensium Confessio Basil. 1566. 8vo.

Tom.

See also

contra in

claudicantes

the Fasciculus

Hussitas.

Rerum, &c.

1.

Conrad. Danhauerus. Ecclesia Waldensium Orthodoxiae Lutheranae Testis et Socia. Argent. 1659. 4to.

Sam. Maresius. Disserlatio Historico-theolog-ica de WalGroning. 1660. 4to.

densibus. vEgid.

Stauchius.

Historico-theologica Disquisitio

Waldensibus. Witenberg. 1675. 4to. De Waldensibus Pet. Wesenbeccius.

et

de

Principum Pro-

testantium Epistolis hue pertinentibus. 1603. 4to.

Joan Lasicius.

Verae Religionis Apologia. Spirae. 1582.

Now is it possible, among such a number of fine Discourses and elaborate Pieces upon

this subject,

a

person,

who

Account of Heresies, should never have met with, or heard of any Apologies that were made in the behalf of these men but he must needs take his accounts crudely, as writes the

;

THE AUTHORS PREFACE.

Xxii

delivered by their professed enemies

?

If the

account of

Ranerius, their adversary, but an ingenuous popish writer,

does them abundantly more justice tlian this though he calls them a sect, yet he says, it was an ancient sect for some said it had continued from the time of Pope Sylvester and others, from the time of the Apostles: and whereas all other sects were accompanied

be taken,

author

it

for

:

:

;

with horrible blasphemies against God, which would

a

man

tremble

They

piety.

;

Creed

:

Were

Leonists had a great shew of

this of the

lived uprightly before

things aright of God, and

make

all

men, and believed

all

the Articles contained in the

only they blasphemed and hated the Church of Rome, these the Waldenses, " That rejected episcopacy,

and the Apostles' creed, and all holy orders, and the power of the magistrate, and approved of adulterous embraces, and practised promiscuous copulation," as our author represents them, styling them, by

way

of contempt, " the religion-

mongers, and pious reformers of the Twelfth Century V If our author were put to apologise for himself, he would lay all the blame upon Alexander Rosse For he is his :

tells

whom

And Alexander us ingenuously, he had his accounts from Baronius,

learned author from

he transcribed.

Gcnebrard, Sanders, Gualterus, Bellarmin, Viegas, Flori-

mundus Raimundus, Prateolus, Gregory de Valentia, and such other writers, who were noted Papists, and inveterate enemies of the Waldensian and Protestant Religion. And should an author, who writes about heresies, have given his accounts, designed for the use of protestant readers, out of Kuch authors, when he might have had recourse to one or more of such a number of excellent protestant writers, who

have cleared up the character of the Waldenses, and vindica-

memory out of their own writings and Confessions of Faith, which are the most certain evidences of their reli-

ted their

gions

?

It in

amazing

to

v*ho pretends to the least

think

how any ingenuous

writer,

knowledge of books and leurnnig,

THE AUTHORS PREFACE. should SOTS least

ffive

ZZIH

such a black character of those excellent confes-

and witnesses of the truth, without suggesting the tittle of what so many learned men have said, or what

may be

said, in their vindication.

I will

not suspect our au-

thor of any sinister designs of advancing popery, but I will

be bold

he could hardly have taken a more effectual

to say,

way, had he designed to do

it, than by instilling into the minds of those, who can look no further than his accounts, such an odious character of those men, of whom so many

thousands laid down their

cause of true religion

lives for the

in those very points wherein Protestants stand distinguished

had once an occasion to make book* on another writer, who is much superior to our author in learning and ingenuity and I never heard that he took it unkindly at my hands for

from Papists at

same

this

this day.

1

reflexion in a former

:

so doing

:

for

an historian's business

as well as he can, aud then deliver

is

it

only to find out truth

to others fairly with-

out disguise, or any false colours put upon

And

it.

therefore

hope our author will take occasion to amend this grand error, whenever he has opportunity to write any thing further upon this subject. His time w ould be much better employed in reading and considering the books of some of those excellent writers I have referred him to, than in collecting an heap of rubbish from Alexander Rosse or any other such in1

judicious writers.

But there is one thing more I must put this author and mind of: that whilst he bears so hard upon the poor Waldenses, and Albigenses, and Wicklevists, and Hussites, and Lollards, he has not one sellable in all his Index of the grand errors of the Romanists or Papists, under 3.

his readers in

any

title

they

He

or denomination whatsoever.

fell

not directly in his

way

:

for

cannot pretend

he

treats of

dern Sects and Heterodoxies as well as Ancient.

* Scholiast Hist, of Baptism,

part.

i.

chap.

i.

p. 97.

Mo-

Neither

rnK Ai'TnoH's preface.

xxiv

for Alexander Rosse has a liis jjcuidc here whole section of fifty pages in his book upon the subject. Or if he had said nothing- upon it, yet it mio;-ht have become n new Heresiolog-ist to have taken notice of the errors of

did he want

;

the Romanists upon

some

Their errors are as

or other.

title

considerable and dangerous, as those of most other modern sects

;

why then have

slantiation

no error

tliey

no place

in tiic

Index

?

Is transub-

Is idolatry in its various species of

?

wor-

shipping- saints, angels, images, relics, the host, and the cross,

no crime style

?

that

it,

Hildebrandine heresy, as our writers

Is not the is,

the doctrine of deposing kings, an error

worth mentioning

Nor the pope's pretence

'

to infallibi-

and universal power over the Church, worthy of a protestant's censure ? Is it no crime to exempt the clergy from the power of the civil magistrate nor any w rong done them to impose celibacy upon them ? Have the people no injury done them in keepingthe Scriptures locked upin an unknown tongue Or being obliged to have divine service in a lanlity

;

?

guage they do not understand

?

crilegiously of one half of the

Or in being deprived sacommunion ? Or in having

the absolute necessity of auricular confession imposed upon

them

Is there

?

gences

no harm

in

Are private and

?

of purgatory, with

many

the use of Interdicts and Indul-

solitary masses,

and the doctrine

other errors, such innocent things,

that it was not worth an historian's while to give his readers any notice of them, or caution against them ? Our author knows, I have fairly combated most of these things, and shewn them to be novelties and great corruptions, in

the

several

parts

of

meet with them. done, had been to to

his

own Epitome,

treated, his

own

if

or

my

Origines,

as

I

had occasion

Therefore the least he could have refer

my

his

readers to those

parts

of

Origines, where these things are

he was not minded to give them

in

one view

in

collections.

But he

IK

as favourable

to the

Anli-episcopal men,

or

:

THE AUTHOR Presbyterians, as he

no place

in his

S

PREFACE.

For he gives them

to the Papists.

is

catalogue neither.

XXV

suppose he was

I

in

had made such an omission. But he should now consider, that he who falsely objects it to the Waldenses, that they rejected

haste for the press, and considered not that

lie

episcopacy, which they always carefully mainfained, should not have passed over in silence those men.

who oppose

epis-

copacy, when he might with justice and truth have charged

them with

as their proper heterodoxy, from which their

it

denomination of Anti-episcopal, or Presbyterian,

But

is

taken,

this is not all the defect of his Index.

If this author

would have gnven a Perfect Catalogue of

All the Original Heresies from the

appeared

first

these later times, he

in

Ages

of Christianity,

remarkable Heterodoxies, which

together with the more

should have

inserted

many other names, both ancient and modern, which now omitted, in his catalogue. In the first century;

are

the

Thebulians, Cleobians, Dositheans, Gorthaeans, Merinthians not to mention Demas, Hermogenes, Hymenseus and Philetus,

Alexander the coppersmith, Diotrephes, and the doc-

trine

of Jesabel, which are

noted

second century, Bassus, a new the third century,

and

Solitarii,

in

Scripture.

which were new branches of the Manichees. Psathyrians

Theoponitae,

Arians,

Cyrthiani

Gyrovagi,

of the Arians, Ade-

new branches

and Lucianists, two drotheitae,

In

the Discalc«ati, Apocaritai, Dicartitae,

In the fourth century, the Minaei, Adelphians,

lophagi,

In the

disciple of Valentinus.

and

Triformiani,

or

Triscilidae

Pytheciani,

Homuncionitae,

new

Ametritae,

sects

Hyof

Psycho-

pneumones, Adecerditae, Sarabaitae or Remboth, PassionistsB, Nyctages, Theophronians, Metagenetae, Sabbatians or

Protopaschites.

lantians

and Massiiienses.

In

the

fifth

In the

century, the Vigisixth

century

the

Marcianists or followers of Marcianus Trapezita, the Tetraditae,

and Sevcrians, with the several branches that sprung

THE AUTHORS PREFACE.

XXvi

from them, the Contobabdit:c, Paulians, Theodosians, Daraianists,

Petrites, Cononites, Corrupticolai

the Errors of Peter Mog"{^us and Peter

made a great

Avhich

;

noise in the history of

did also the practices of

Zeno with

Anastatius ng-ainst the Council of

tog-ether with

Gnapheus his

tliis

or Fullo, ag-e

;

as

Ilenoticon, and

Chalcedon.

In

the

seventh century, Joannes Philoponus and Ethicoproscropta;.

The

eighth century was famous for the disputes between

the

Iconoclasts and the Iconolatra^, Imag-e-worshippers

and Image-breakers

:

and the Errors of the Second Council

of Nice might have been set forth in a

much more advan-

tageous view, had our author been pleased to have acquainted his reader with the brave opposition that was

made

by the Council of Francford and other Councils and Writers of that and the following ages, in his against

it

The

History of the General Councils. ages, Prateolus

num

is

ninth and the tenth

pleased to say, was a perfect interreg-

of heretics, a cessation and rest of the Church for

two hundred years and more from

all heretical infestation.

Others more properly call these the dark and ignorant ages,

when

And

the

enemy sowed

his tares, whilst

men were

asleep.

Baronius himself cannot forbear upon some accounts them " infelicissima Romance Ecclesice iempora et

to call

omnium

unhappy ayid deplorable when weak men were in

luctuosisstma, the most

times of the

Roman

Church,''

danger of being scandalized by seeing the abomination of desolation set in the Temple. If our author had been as inquisitive as

it

Ijecame him, he might have found the great

Idol of Transubstantiation

begun

to

be formed

in the errors

of Paschasius Rathbertus in these ages, though not fully

completed until some ages after in the Council of Lateran and the seeds of the Hildebrandine heresy springing up in

:

llii!

bold attempts of the popes of these ages against

power of

princes, until

it

came

to its full maturity

tlie

under

:

THE AUTHOR

S

PREFACE.

Hildebrand himself, called Gregory VII

more of the popish

errors,

XXVll

to mention no which our author thought fit :

wholly to pass over. In the twelfth century he might have found the errors of Durandus de Waldach, and Petrus Abaelardus, and Gilbertus Porretanus, and the Coterelli, and the Populicans, to have added to his Index. But above the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries would have

all,

furnished him with great abundance of more remarkable errors to

have

genses. errors of

filled

and

Wicklevites

up

his

Hussites,

catalogue

instead

of

the

and Waldenses, and Albi-

For now appeared in the thirteenth century the Abbot Joachim, and Petrus Joannes de Oliva, and

John de Parma, the author of the infamous book, called, Evangelium Mternv-tn- ^ The Everlasting Gospel, which was to supersede and set aside the Gospel of Christ, under pretence of introducing the more Spiritual Gospel of the Holy Ghost. Eimericus has noted seven and twenty errors and blasphemies contained in this book, which the Mendicant But our author Friars in those days highly magnified. needed not to have gone so high as Eimericus for them for Bishop Stillingfleet gives an ample account of them in As he does also his Fanaticism of the Church of Rome. of the errors of Gerardus Segarelli, and the Dulcinists, and Herman of Ferraria, and the book called, The Flowers of and another, The Conformities of St. Francis To which may be added the errors of Raymundus Lullius, and David Dinantius, and Bugaurius de Monte Falcone, together with the errors of Joannes Guion, and Joannes de Mercuria, and Nicolas de Ultricuria, and

St.

Francis

and

;

Christ.

Dionysius Soulechat a Franciscan, and Joannes de Galore, and one Ludovicus, and Guido an Austin hermit, with some

ages by Guilielmus Parisiensis and Stephanus Parisiensis, with the concurrence of the University of Paris, and are to be found at the end of

others that were

condemned

in these

THE AUTHORS

XXTIII

some

PREFACF..

oditions of Peter Lotuhard, with the errors of Peter

Lotnhard himself, under

Articuli in (juibus Ma^ister

tliis title,

Sententiarum communiter non tenetur.

Lombard. Sentcnt. Spondanus adds to these, the Condorrnientes, and Pastorelli, and Guido de Lacha, and the Humiliati, and the Ordo Apostolorum: all which appeared

Ludg-. 1594. 8vo.

within the compass of the thirteenth century, besides the

famous disputes between the Guelphs and Gibelins, wliich continued tury,

cen-

In the fourteenth

the following- ajjes.

in

INIontanerius, and

there are the errors of Arnaldus

Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Bertoldus de Roback,

INIartinus

Gonsalvus Conchensis, Nicolaus Calaber, Bartholomaous Janovesius, the Bizochi, and Fratres de Paupere Vita, the

Pseudapostoli, Joannes de Latone, Joannes Hato, the Sect of the Impuri, the Albati,

Raimundus de Terraga, Amadeus Lusitanus

who

travelled, with great admiration

Europe

sanctity, over all parts of

order was extinguished

in

who

Sabellians of Spain,

;

whose

the Templars,

the Council of Vienna

;

for their

;

New

the

maintained upon the liypothesis

of Transubstantiation, that the Eueliarist was both Father,

Sun and Holy Ghost

;

the errors of Franciscus Ceccus, an

Italian astrologer; the wild disputes between the Palamites

and Joannes Cantacuzenus on the one

side,

and Acyndinus on the other, concerning the Tabor; the Revelations of

St. Brigit

and

and Barlaam

light of

St.

Mount

Catharine fur

and against the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary

;

same matter between the Dominicans and the Franciscans and the more fierce disputes of

the disputes about the

;

those orders concerning the poverty of Jesus Christ

which Bishop

Stillingfleet gives

an ample account

;

in

of his

Funalaeism of the Church of Rome, and the author of the

Mystery of Jesuitism an account no to these, the errors

are laid

ti>

iiis

less entertaining;

of Pope John XXII.

charge by onr

coiinli

viiiiiii