Romanism, renounced, in this manner, in the west by the Waldenses, was op- posed in the east by the Greeks, Nestorians, Jacobites, Armenians and Syrians. The Greeks occupy European Turkey and the Mediterranean Islands; and are dispersed, though in fewer numbers, through Mesopotamia, Syria, Cilicia, Palestine, Georgia and Mingrelia. The religion of the Greek Church is also the religion of European and Asiatic Russia, comprehending a territory more extensive than the empire of Alexander or Tamerlane. The Greeks, as they possess an extensive country, comprehend a numerous people. The patriarch of Constantinople, says Allatius, quoted by Thomasin, governed, in the eleventh century, sixty-five metropolitans, and more than six hundred bishops. The Greeks, indeed, agree not with modern Protestants in all things. Some of the orientals had drunk more and some less from the muddy fountain of human invention, according to the period of their connection with the Romish communion. The Greeks continued longest in conjunction with the Latins; and in consequence, have imbibed most corruption. The assimilation, indeed, between the Greek and Latin communions is in many points, close and striking. The Greeks, however, concur to a man in opposing papal usurpation and tyranny; in denying that the Romish is the true church; and in condemning the dogmas of purgatory, supererogation, half-communion, human merit, clerical celibacy, prayers for the dead, and restricting the circulation of the Bible. The Greeks excommunicate the Roman pontiff and all the Latin episcopacy, as the abettors of schism and heresy. Prateolus, Fisher, More, Renaudot, Guido, Innocent, Bellarmine and Aquinas confess the Grecian disbelief in purgatory and in the utility of supplications for the dead. Their rejec tion of confirmation and extreme unction is testified by Simon; while their belief in the divine obligation of communicating in both kinds is declared by Simon, Prateolus and More. Thevenot and Le Bruges testify the Greek proscription of Tho. Part IV. 2. 17. Allat. 1. 24. purgatory, the pontifical supremacy and communion in one kind.* The Greeks have shown great resolution in opposing papal despotism. Thomasin complains of their peculiar unwillingness, beyond all the other orientals, to acknowledge the pontifical supremacy. Matthew Paris deprecates. their open or concealed hostility, on all occasions, to Romanism, and their blasphemy against its sacraments. Baldwin, the Grecian emperor, honoured the Latins with the name, not of men, but of dogs; and this seems to have been their common appellation for all the partisans of Popery. The Greeks, says the Lateran Council, detest the Latins, rebaptize those whom they admit to their communion, and wash the altars on which the Romish clergy celebrate mass, and which, in their mind, had been polluted with the defilement of the Popish sacrament.t The Mingrelians, who belong to the Greek Church, appear to disbelieve transubstantiation. Sir John Chardin, while on his travels in Mingrelia, asked a priest, if the sacramental bread and wine became the body and blood of our Lord. The priest, on the occasion, laughed, as if the question had been intended in raillery. The simple Mingrelian, in the exercise of common sense, could not understand how the Mediator between God and man could be compressed into a loaf, or why he should descend from heaven to earth.‡ The Nestorians overspread Asiatic Turkey, Arabia, Persia, Tartary, India and China. Their number and extent will appear from the statements of Cosmas, Vitricius, Canisius, Polo, Paris, Godeau and Thomasin. Cosmas, in Montfaucon, represented the Nestorian churches, in the sixth century, as infinite or unnumbered. Vitricius records the numerical superiority of the Nestorians and Jacobites over the Greeks and Ro SIMON, C. 1 Canisius, 4. 433. Fisher, Art. 18. More, 199. Renaudot, 2. 105. Bell. 1. 1370. Innocent, 4. Ep. ad Otton. Du Fresne, 5. 931. Bell. 1. 2. More, 200. More, 199. Thevenot, 1. 258, 259. c. 55. Le Bruges, 1. 338, 339. c. 13. Thom. I. 5. M. Paris, 426. Cossart, 3. 21. Labb. 13. 938. Canis. 4.433. Le Bruges, 1. 327. c. 13. Chardin, 1. 100. mans. Canisius, from an old author, gives a similar statement. Polo, the Venetian, who remained seventeen years in Tartary, and was employed by the Cham on many important commissions, testifies the dissemination of Nestorianism through Tartary, China and the empire of the Mogols. Matthew Paris relates the spread of the Nestorian heresy through India, the kingdom of Prester John, and the nations lying nearer the Godeau mentions the extension of Nestorianism through the east and its penetration into the extremity of India, where it remains to the present day. Thomasin attests its diffusion through India, Persia and Tartary, and its multiplication in the north and east, nearly to infinity.* 、east. The Jacobites or Monophysites are divided into the Asiatics and Africans. The Asiatics are diffused through Syria, Mesopotamia and Armenia; and the Africans through Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia. The vast number of this denomination, and the extensive territory which they have occupied, may be shown from the relations of Vitricius, Paris, Canisius and Thomasin. Vitricius records the dissemination of the Monophysite contagion through more than forty kingdoms. The patriarch of the Jacobites, says Matthew Paris, superintends the Chaldeans, Medians, Persians, Armenians, Indians, Æthiopians, Lybians, Nubians and Egyptians. These, mingled with the Saracens or fixed in their own settlements through Asia, Africa and the East, occupy more than forty kingdoms, containing an innumerable Christian population. Canisius, from the manuscript of an anonymous historian, has transmitted a similar account. The Jacobites, according to Thomasin, spread, under the empire of the Saracens, through all Asia and Africa. The patriarch of Antioch presides over the Metropolitans of Jerusalem, Mosul, Damascus, Edessa and Cyprus. The patriarch of Alexandria and Abyssinia presides over Egypt, Montfaucon, 2. 179. Canisius, 4. 433. Vitricius, 1. 76. Thom. 1. 4. Part 4. M. Paris, 425. Godeau, 3. 354. Thom. 2. 20. Part IV. Thom. 1. 357. Bayle, 3. 2079. Ethiopia and Nubia.* Abyssinia boasts a Christian empire and establishment. Jowett, the missionary, found in Siout, an Egyptian city, about 5000 Coptic Christians. The Jacobites reject the supremacy, purgatory, transubstantiation, half-communion, auricular confession, extreme unction, the Latin liturgy and the seven sacraments. The usurped authority of the Roman hierarch, they view with contempt. Their communion in both kinds, as well as their rejection of confirmation and extreme unction, are testified by Dresser and Godeau. Canisius, from an old author, in his Lections, and Moreri show the Jacobite disbelief of purgatory. The Monophysite Missal, cited by Geddes, disclaims transubstantiation. According to this document, "the bread and the wine are distinct from our Lord in nature, but the same in power and efficacy. His body is broken, but only by faith." An Abyssinian or Monophysite priest expressly declared against transubstantiation to Bruce. "The priest," says this author, "declared to me with great earnestness, that he never Idid believe that the elements in the eucharist were converted into the real body and blood of Christ. He said, however, that he believed this to be the Roman Catholic faith, but it never was his, and that he conceived the bread was bread and the wine was wine even after consecration." Vitricius attests their rejection of auricular confession. Their disuse of the Latin liturgy is well known; and their renunciation of confirmation, confession and extreme unction, shows their opinion of the seven sacraments.† The Nestorians were said to divide the person of the Son, and the Jacobites to confound his natures. But this controversy, as the ablest and most candid theologians and historians admit, was a dispute about words. This is the opinion of the Protestant historians, Mosheim, Bayle, Basnage, La Croze, Jablonsky * Paris, 425, 426. Canisius, 4.433. Thom. 2. 20. Vitricius, I. 75. Renaudot, 1. 375, 438, 440. † Dress. 525. Godeau, 1. 275. Canis. 4. 434. Moreri, 8. 429. Gedd. 169. Vitricius, I. 76. Bruce, V. 12. and Buchanan. Many Romish as well as reformed critics entertained the same opinion. This was the judgment of Simon, Bruys, Assemanni, Tournefort, Gelasius, Thomasin and Godeau. Nestorianism, says Simon, is only a nominal heresy, and the controversy originated in a mutual misunderstanding. Bruys, Assemanni, Tournefort and Gelasius speak to the same purpose. Thomasin calls the Jacobites, Armenians, Copts and Abyssinians, demi-Eutychians, who rejected the extravagant imaginations of the original Monophysites. Modern relations, says this author, show, that the Jacobites confounded not the godhead and manhood of the Messiah; but represented these as forming one person, without confusion, in the Son, as soul and body in man. The Abyssinians, who are a branch of the Monophysites, disbelieve, says Godeau, any commixture of Deity and humanity in the Son of God.* The Armenians are scattered through Armenia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, Persia, India, Cyprus, Poland, Turkey, Transylvania, Hungary and Russia. Julfa, in the suburbs of Ispahan, is, say Renaudot and Chardin, entirely inhabited by this denomination. This colony amounted to 30,000 persons. Abbas, the Persian monarch, contemporary with Elizabeth of England, invited, says Walsh, the Armenians to settle in his dominions, where he gave them every protection. Twenty thousand families were placed in the province of Guilam. Forty thousand reside in India, and carry on a great part of the inland trade. Two hundred thousand of them remain in Constantinople, in the adjoining villages, and on the Bosphorus.† The Armenian merchants are distinguished for their industry, frugality, activity and opulence. Fixing their settlements in every principal city and emporium of Asia, the Armenians, says Buchanan, are the general merchants of the east, and in constant motion between Canton and Constantinople. Calcutta, Madras and Bombay * Bayle, 2077. Simon, c. 9. Bruys, 1. 207. Assem. 291. Tourn. 2. 297. Gel. de duob. Thom. 2. 21. Godeau, I. 275. Renaud. 2. 376. Chard. 2. 97. have each an Armenian church. Tournefort extols their civility, politeness, probity, sense, wealth, industry and enterprising disposition. Godeau reckons the Armenian families, under one of the Armenian patriarchs, at more than 1500. The Armenian patriarch of Antioch, says Otho, superintends more than a thousand bishops, and is, in consequence, called universal. He governs, says Vitricius, twenty provinces and fourteen metropolitans with their suffragans, who occupy, according to Thomasin, many churches through all the east, in Mesopotamia, Persia, Caramania and Armenia.* This denomination, beyond all the Christians in Central Asia, have repelled Mahometan and Romish superstitions. True to their ancient faith, they have nobly resisted the oppression of Islamism and the allurements of Popery. Preserving the Bible, their faith, says Buchanan, is a transcript of biblical purity. The Armenians condemn the supremacy, transubstantiation, purgatory, image-worship, clerical celibacy, the seven sacraments, the Latin liturgy, the power of the sacraments to confer grace, the observance of vigils and festivals, and the withholding of the Bible from the laity. Their rebaptism of Papists who join their communion, as mentioned by Godeau and More, is a sufficient evidence of the opinion which they entertain of the supremacy and of Romanism. The uncatholicism and falsehood of Popery, besides, is, says More, one of their professed dogmas. Their disbelief of the real presence in the communion, except in sign and similitude, is acknowledged by Godeau, Guido and More. Their denial of purgatory and prayers for the dead is admitted by Godeau, More and Canisius; while Nicetas, Baronius and Spondanus proclaim the Armenian renunciation of image-worship. The Armenians, according to Godeau, ordain only married men to the priesthood; and detract from the sacraments the power of conferring grace. Thevenot attests their rejection of purgatory * Godeau, 1. 273. Thomasin, 1. 4. Labbeus, 12. 1572. Vitricius, c. 23. Thom. I. 4. part 4. Spon. 1145. IV. and the pope, as well as their great enmity to all the professors of Romanism.* The Syrian Christians who agree in faith with the reformed, inhabit India, where Travancore and Malabar constitute their chief settlements. These had occupied Western India from the earliest ages, and had never heard of Romanism or the Papacy, till Vasco De Gama arrived at Cochin in the beginning of the sixteenth century. The infernal spirit of Popery and persecution then invaded this ancient church, and disturbed the tranquillity of 1200 years. The Syrians on the sea-coast yielded, for a time, to the storm. But the inland inhabitants, in support of their ancient religion, braved all the terrors of the Inquisition with unshaken resolution. The Syrians constitute a numerous church. Godeau reckons the Syrian population of Comorin, Coutan, Cranganor, Malabar and Negapatam at 16,000 families, or 70,000 individuals. But the multitude is greater towards the west, the north and the city of Cochin. The antiquity of the Syrian church reaches beyond that of Nestorianism, Jacobitism or Armenianism, and this appears in the purity and simplicity of their theology. Godeau admits their reading of the New Testament in the Syrian tongue in their churches; and their rejection of extreme unction, image-worship and clerical celibacy. The Syrians, says Moreri, as well as Thomas, quoted by Renaudot, neither believe purgatorial fire nor pray for the dead. These Indian Christians, says Renaudot, celebrate the communion in Syriac, and reckon, says Canisius, all the Latins excommunicated.§ But the Synod of Diamper, in which Menez, Archbishop of Goa, presided, affords unexceptionable evidence of the opposition of the Syrian Church to Popery, and of its agreement, in every essential, with Protestantism. The acts of this synod are inserted in Labbé's and Cossart's collection, and supply the following statements. "The Babylonian patriarch is independent of the Roman pontiff, and the Syrian Church of the papal communion. The Son of God conferred no authority on Peter above his apostolic fellows. The Romish communion has renounced the faith and fallen into heresy. The Popish theology is a system of falsehood, which was propagated through Christendom by the arms and enactments of the Roman emperors. "Transubstantiation is an absurdity. The body of Jesus is not in the host and is only in heaven. The bread and wine are the emblems of his body and blood, from which they differ as a picture from the original. The sacramental elements are the Lord, not in reality, but in appearance, not in substance but in efficacy. When Menez elevated the host, the Syrians shut their eyes lest they should see the object of idolatry. "Images are not to be venerated. These hateful and filthy idols are to be excluded from the churches and houses of the faithful." When Menez exhibited an image of the Virgin Mary, the people cried, "away with this abomination. We are Christians, and do not worship idols." "Matrimony, confirmation and extreme unction are no sacraments. The Syrians had no knowledge of confirmation; and regarded it, when proposed by the metropolitan of Goa, not only as su perfluous and unnecessary, but as an insult. The Syrian clergy administered no extreme unction, and were ignorant of its supposed institution, use and efficacy. The Syrian laity practised no auricular confession. The Syro-Indian church used no holy oil, either in baptism or in any other ceremony. Menez, the Popish metropolitan, ordered baptism to be administered according to the Roman ritual: a certain token that the chrism, exorcism, spittle and other ridiculous superstitions of Romanism, in the administration of this sacrament, had been unknown in this ancient communion. Sacerdotal celibacy was no institution of Syrian discipline. The clergy married, and sometimes even widows." Such is the Synod of Diamper's representation of the distinctions which discriminated Syrianism from Popery.* Buchanan and Kerr visited this Christian community, and have transmitted accounts of its people and profession. Their knowledge of the Syrian clergy and laity was obtained by personal acquaintance, and their delineations possess all the merit of pictures taken from life. Buchanan held long conversations with the Syrian clergy; and found, after mature examination, the conformity of their faith with the reformed. He acknowledged the antiquity of Syrianism, and its identity, in all its tenets, with Protestantism. India, from time immemorial, contained a church which was unknown to the rest of Christendom, but which held the same theology that had been professed in the European nations by the Waldensians, and which, in the sixteenth century, was promulgated by Luther and Calvin, and is received, at the present day, by a great part of the Old and New World. *Cossart, 6. 29, 36, 37, 39, 40. Cossart, 6. 39, 40. Cossart, 6. 40, 47. Cossart, 6. 36, 65, 72, 73, 83, 101, 112, 127. . The European, Asiatic and African denominations that dissented from Popery were four times more numerous than the partisans of Romanism, when, prior to the Reformation, the Papacy shone in all its glory. Popery, instead of universality, which is its vain but empty boast, was never embraced by more than a fifth part of Christendom. The west and especially the east were crowded by the opponents of the Romish despotism and absurdity. Superstition and error, indeed, except among the Waldenses, prevailed through the European nations, and reigned in the realms of the Papacy with uncontrolled sway. Darkness, within its dominions, covered the earth and gross darkness the people. But the Waldenses, who were numerous, held up, in the western world, a steady light which shone through the surrounding obscurity, and illuminated, with its warming beams, the minds of many. The oriental Christians, more numerous than the Waldenses and divided and disputing about minor matters of words and ceremony, opposed, with firmness and unanimity, the tyranny and corruptions of Romanism. All these, overspreading the eastern and western world, and resisting the usurpations of pontifical despotism, far outnumbered the sons of European superstition and Popery. |