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an eminent rank among the writers of this cen- CENT. tury.

Fortunatus, a man of various erudition, and whose poetic compositions are far from being destitute of genius [s].

Gregory of Tours, who is esteemed the father of Gallic history; and who would have descended with honour to posterity, did not his Annals of the Francs, and the rest of his writings, carry so many marks of levity, credulity, and weakness [t].

Gildas, the most ancient of the British writers, who composed a book Concerning the destruction of Britain, in which there are several things not altogether unworthy of the curiosity of the learned.

Columbanus, a native of Ireland, who became famous on account of the monastic rules he prescribed to his followers, his zeal for establishing religious orders, and his poetical productions [u].

Isidore, bishop of Seville, whose grammatical, theological, and historical productions discover more learning and pedantry, than judgment and

taste.

We may conclude this enumeration of the Latin writers with the illustrious names of Boethius and Cassiodorus, who far surpassed all their contemporaries in learning and knowledge; the former shone forth with the brightest lustre in the republic of letters, as a philosopher, an ora

tor,

[s] Histoire Litteraire de la France, tom. iii. p. 464. [t] The life of Gregory of Tours is to be found in the Histoire Litteraire de la France; and his faults are mentioned by Pagi, in his Dissert. de Dionysio Paris. sect. 25. p. 6. which is added to the fourth tome of the Breviarium Pontif. Romanor. Launois defends this historian in many things in his works, tom. i. part II. p. 131.

[u] None have given more accurate accounts of Gildas and Columban than the learned Benedictines, Histoire Litteraire de la France, tom. iii. p. 279, 505.

VI. PART II.

PART II.

CENT. tor, a poet, and a divine, and both in elegance VI. and subtilty of genius had no superior, nor indeed any equal in this century; the latter, though in many respects inferior to him, was nevertheless far from being destitute of merit [w]. Several productions of these writers have been transmitted down to our times.

The increase of superstition.

CHAP. III.

Concerning the doctrine of the church during this century.

I.

WHEN

HEN once the ministers of the church had departed from the ancient simplicity of religious worship, and sullied the native purity of divine truth by a motley mixture of human inventions, it was difficult to set bounds to this growing corruption. Abuses were daily multiplied, and superstition drew from its horrid fecundity an incredible number of absurditics, which are added to the doctrine of Christ and his apostles. The controversial writers in the eastern provinces continued to render perplexed and obscure some of the principal doctrines of Christianity, by the subtile distinctions which they borrowed from a vain and chimerical philosophy. The public teachers and instructors of the people degenerated sadly from the apostolic character. They seemed to aim at nothing else, than to sink the multitude into the most opprobrious ignorance and superstition, to efface in their minds all sense of the beauty and excellence of genuine piety, and to substitute, in the place of religious principles, a blind veneration for the clergy, and

a stu

[w] See Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque de M. Du Pin, tom. i. p. 211.

VI.

a stupid zeal for a senseless round of ridiculous CENT. rites and ceremonies. This, perhaps, will appear less surprising, when we consider, that the blind PART II. led the blind; for the public ministers and teachers of religion were, for the most part, grossly ignorant; nay, almost as much so as the multitude whom they were appointed to instruct.

II. To be convinced of the truth of the dismal Proved by representation we have here given of the state of examples. religion at this time, nothing more is necessary than to cast an eye upon the doctrines now taught concerning the worship of images and saints, the fire of purgatory, the efficacy of good works, i. e. the observance of human rites and institutions, towards the attainment of salvation, the power of relics to heal the diseases of body and mind; and such like sordid and miserable fancies, which are inculcated in many of the superstitious productions of this century, and particularly in the epistles and other writings of Gregory the Great. Nothing more ridiculous on the one hand, than the solemnity and liberality with which this good, but silly pontiff, distributed the wonder-working relics; and nothing more lamentable on the other, than the stupid eagerness and devotion with which the deluded multitude received them, and suffered themselves to be persuaded, that a portion of stinking oil, taken from the lamps which burned at the tombs of the martyrs, had a supernatural efficacy to sanctify its possessors, and to defend them from all dangers, both of a temporal and spiritual nature [z].

cal or ex

III. Several attempts were made in this cen- The state tury to lay down a proper and judicious method of exegetiof explaining the scriptures. Of this nature planatory were the two books of Junilius the African, theology. Concerning

[x] See the List of sacred oils which Gregory the Great sent queen Theudelinda, in the work of Ruinartus, intitled, Acta Martyrum sincera el selecta, p. 619.

PART II.

CENT. Concerning the various parts of the divine law VI. [y]: a work destitute of precision and method, and by which it appears that the author had not sufficient knowledge and penetration for the task he undertook.

The defects

positors.

Cassiodorus also, in his two books Concerning the divine laws, has delivered several rules for the right interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

Philoxenus the Syrian, translated, into his native language, the Psalms of David, and the Books of the New Testament [z].

The number of interpreters was considerable in this century. Those, who made the greatest figure among the Greeks in this character, were Procopius of Gaza, Severus of Antioch, Julian, and a few others; the first was an expositor of no mean abilities [a]. The most eminent rank among the Latin commentators is due to Gregory the Great, Cassiodorus, Primasius [b], Isidore of Seville [c], and Bellator.

IV. It must, however, be acknowledged, that of these ex- these writers scarcely deserve the name of expositors, if we except a small number of them, and among these the eastern Nestorians, who, following the example of Theodore of Mopsuestia, were careful in exploring the true sense, and the native energy of the words employed in the Holy Scriptures. So that we may divide the commentators of this age into two classes. In the first,

we

[y] See Simon. Critique de la Bibliotheque de Du Pin, tom. i. p. 229.

[2] Jo. Sim. Assemannus, Biblioth. Orient. Vatican. tom. ii. p. 83.

[a] See Simon. Lettres Choises, tom. iv. p. 120. of the new edition.

[b] Simon Hist. Critique des principaux Commentateurs du N. T. chap. xxiv. p. 337; as also his Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Eccl, de Du Pin, tom. i. p. 226.

[c] Simon, Critique de la, &c, du M. Du Pin, tom. i. p.

VI. PART II.

we rank those who did nothing more than collect CENT. the opinions and interpretations which had been received by the ancient doctors of the church; which collections were afterwards called chains by the Latins [d]. Such was the chain of Olympiodorus on Job; the chain of Victor of Capua upon the Four Gospels; and the commentary of Primasius on the Epistle to the Romans, which was compiled from the works of Augustin, Jerome, Ambrose, and others. Even Procopius of Gaza may be ranked in this class, though not with so much reason as the mere compilers now mentioned; since, in many cases, he has consulted the dictates of his own judgment, and not followed, with a servile and implicit submission, the voice of antiquity. To the second class belong those fanciful expositors, who, setting up Origen as their great model, neglect and overlook entirely the sense of the words employed by the sacred writers, lose themselves in spiritual refinements and allegorical digressions, and, by the succour of a lively and luxuriant imagination, draw from the scriptures arguments in favour of every whim they have thought proper to adopt. Such was Anastatius the Sinaite, whose Mysterious contemplations on the six days creation [e], betray the levity and ignorance of their author; and Gregory the Great, whose Moral observations upon the book of Job, have formerly met with unmerited commendations. Such also were Isodore of Seville, and Primasius, as manifestly appears by the Book of Allegories upon the Holy Scriptures [f], which was invented by the former, and

the

[d] See Steph. Le Moyne, Prolegomena ad varia Sacra, p. 53. Jo. Albert. Fabricii Biblioth. Græcæ, lib. v. cap. xvii. or vol. vii. p. 727.

[e] The title is Contemplationes Anagogicæ in Hexaëmeron. [f] Liber Allegoriarum in Scripturam Sacram.

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