Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord.—Part IV

Justinian has been already seen in the various lights of a
prince, a conqueror, and a lawgiver: the theologian 80 still
remains, and it affords an unfavorable prejudice, that his
theology should form a very prominent feature of his portrait.
The sovereign sympathized with his subjects in their
superstitious reverence for living and departed saints: his Code,
and more especially his Novels, confirm and enlarge the
privileges of the clergy; and in every dispute between a monk and
a layman, the partial judge was inclined to pronounce, that
truth, and innocence, and justice, were always on the side of the
church. In his public and private devotions, the emperor was
assiduous and exemplary; his prayers, vigils, and fasts,
displayed the austere penance of a monk; his fancy was amused by
the hope, or belief, of personal inspiration; he had secured the
patronage of the Virgin and St. Michael the archangel; and his
recovery from a dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculous
succor of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian. The capital and the
provinces of the East were decorated with the monuments of his
religion; 81 and though the far greater part of these costly
structures may be attributed to his taste or ostentation, the
zeal of the royal architect was probably quickened by a genuine
sense of love and gratitude towards his invisible benefactors.
Among the titles of Imperial greatness, the name of Pious was
most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal and spiritual
interest of the church was the serious business of his life; and
the duty of father of his country was often sacrificed to that of
defender of the faith. The controversies of the times were
congenial to his temper and understanding and the theological
professors must inwardly deride the diligence of a stranger, who
cultivated their art and neglected his own. “What can ye fear,”
said a bold conspirator to his associates, “from your bigoted
tyrant? Sleepless and unarmed, he sits whole nights in his
closet, debating with reverend graybeards, and turning over the
pages of ecclesiastical volumes.” 82 The fruits of these
lucubrations were displayed in many a conference, where Justinian
might shine as the loudest and most subtile of the disputants; in
many a sermon, which, under the name of edicts and epistles,
proclaimed to the empire the theology of their master. While the
Barbarians invaded the provinces, while the victorious legion
marched under the banners of Belisarius and Narses, the successor
of Trajan, unknown to the camp, was content to vanquish at the
head of a synod. Had he invited to these synods a disinterested
and rational spectator, Justinian might have learned, “that
religious controversy is the offspring of arrogance and folly;
that true piety is most laudably expressed by silence and
submission; that man, ignorant of his own nature, should not
presume to scrutinize the nature of his God; and that it is
sufficient for us to know, that power and benevolence are the
perfect attributes of the Deity.” 83

80 (return) [ The strain of the Anecdotes of Procopius, (c. 11,
13, 18, 27, 28,) with the learned remarks of Alemannus, is
confirmed, rather than contradicted, by the Acts of the Councils,
the fourth book of Evagrius, and the complaints of the African
Facundus, in his xiith book—de tribus capitulis, “cum videri
doctus appetit importune...spontaneis quaestionibus ecclesiam
turbat.” See Procop. de Bell. Goth. l. iii. c. 35.]

81 (return) [ Procop. de Edificiis, l. i. c. 6, 7, &c., passim.]

82 (return) [ Procop. de Bell. Goth. l. iii. c. 32. In the life
of St. Eutychius (apud Aleman. ad Procop. Arcan. c. 18) the same
character is given with a design to praise Justinian.]

83 (return) [ For these wise and moderate sentiments, Procopius
(de Bell. Goth. l. i. c. 3) is scourged in the preface of
Alemannus, who ranks him among the political Christians—sed longe
verius haeresium omnium sentinas, prorsusque Atheos—abominable
Atheists, who preached the imitation of God’s mercy to man, (ad
Hist. Arcan. c. 13.)]

Toleration was not the virtue of the times, and indulgence to
rebels has seldom been the virtue of princes. But when the prince
descends to the narrow and peevish character of a disputant, he
is easily provoked to supply the defect of argument by the
plenitude of power, and to chastise without mercy the perverse
blindness of those who wilfully shut their eyes against the light
of demonstration. The reign of Justinian was a uniform yet
various scene of persecution; and he appears to have surpassed
his indolent predecessors, both in the contrivance of his laws
and the rigor of their execution. The insufficient term of three
months was assigned for the conversion or exile of all heretics;
84 and if he still connived at their precarious stay, they were
deprived, under his iron yoke, not only of the benefits of
society, but of the common birth-right of men and Christians. At
the end of four hundred years, the Montanists of Phrygia 85 still
breathed the wild enthusiasm of perfection and prophecy which
they had imbibed from their male and female apostles, the special
organs of the Paraclete. On the approach of the Catholic priests
and soldiers, they grasped with alacrity the crown of martyrdom
the conventicle and the congregation perished in the flames, but
these primitive fanatics were not extinguished three hundred
years after the death of their tyrant. Under the protection of
their Gothic confederates, the church of the Arians at
Constantinople had braved the severity of the laws: their clergy
equalled the wealth and magnificence of the senate; and the gold
and silver which were seized by the rapacious hand of Justinian
might perhaps be claimed as the spoils of the provinces, and the
trophies of the Barbarians. A secret remnant of Pagans, who still
lurked in the most refined and most rustic conditions of mankind,
excited the indignation of the Christians, who were perhaps
unwilling that any strangers should be the witnesses of their
intestine quarrels. A bishop was named as the inquisitor of the
faith, and his diligence soon discovered, in the court and city,
the magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and sophists, who still
cherished the superstition of the Greeks. They were sternly
informed that they must choose without delay between the
displeasure of Jupiter or Justinian, and that their aversion to
the gospel could no longer be distinguished under the scandalous
mask of indifference or impiety. The patrician Photius, perhaps,
alone was resolved to live and to die like his ancestors: he
enfranchised himself with the stroke of a dagger, and left his
tyrant the poor consolation of exposing with ignominy the
lifeless corpse of the fugitive. His weaker brethren submitted to
their earthly monarch, underwent the ceremony of baptism, and
labored, by their extraordinary zeal, to erase the suspicion, or
to expiate the guilt, of idolatry. The native country of Homer,
and the theatre of the Trojan war, still retained the last sparks
of his mythology: by the care of the same bishop, seventy
thousand Pagans were detected and converted in Asia, Phrygia,
Lydia, and Caria; ninety-six churches were built for the new
proselytes; and linen vestments, Bibles, and liturgies, and vases
of gold and silver, were supplied by the pious munificence of
Justinian. 86 The Jews, who had been gradually stripped of their
immunities, were oppressed by a vexatious law, which compelled
them to observe the festival of Easter the same day on which it
was celebrated by the Christians. 87 And they might complain with
the more reason, since the Catholics themselves did not agree
with the astronomical calculations of their sovereign: the people
of Constantinople delayed the beginning of their Lent a whole
week after it had been ordained by authority; and they had the
pleasure of fasting seven days, while meat was exposed for sale
by the command of the emperor. The Samaritans of Palestine 88
were a motley race, an ambiguous sect, rejected as Jews by the
Pagans, by the Jews as schismatics, and by the Christians as
idolaters. The abomination of the cross had already been planted
on their holy mount of Garizim, 89 but the persecution of
Justinian offered only the alternative of baptism or rebellion.
They chose the latter: under the standard of a desperate leader,
they rose in arms, and retaliated their wrongs on the lives, the
property, and the temples, of a defenceless people. The
Samaritans were finally subdued by the regular forces of the
East: twenty thousand were slain, twenty thousand were sold by
the Arabs to the infidels of Persia and India, and the remains of
that unhappy nation atoned for the crime of treason by the sin of
hypocrisy. It has been computed that one hundred thousand Roman
subjects were extirpated in the Samaritan war, 90 which converted
the once fruitful province into a desolate and smoking
wilderness. But in the creed of Justinian, the guilt of murder
could not be applied to the slaughter of unbelievers; and he
piously labored to establish with fire and sword the unity of the
Christian faith. 91

84 (return) [ This alternative, a precious circumstance, is
preserved by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 63, edit. Venet. 1733,)
who deserves more credit as he draws towards his end. After
numbering the heretics, Nestorians, Eutychians, &c., ne
expectent, says Justinian, ut digni venia judicen tur: jubemus,
enim ut...convicti et aperti haeretici justae et idoneae
animadversioni subjiciantur. Baronius copies and applauds this
edict of the Code, (A.D. 527, No. 39, 40.)]

85 (return) [ See the character and principles of the Montanists,
in Mosheim, Rebus Christ. ante Constantinum, p. 410—424.]

86 (return) [ Theophan. Chron. p. 153. John, the Monophysite
bishop of Asia, is a more authentic witness of this transaction,
in which he was himself employed by the emperor, (Asseman. Bib.
Orient. tom. ii. p. 85.)]

87 (return) [ Compare Procopius (Hist. Arcan. c. 28, and Aleman’s
Notes) with Theophanes, (Chron. p. 190.) The council of Nice has
intrusted the patriarch, or rather the astronomers, of
Alexandria, with the annual proclamation of Easter; and we still
read, or rather we do not read, many of the Paschal epistles of
St. Cyril. Since the reign of Monophytism in Egypt, the Catholics
were perplexed by such a foolish prejudice as that which so long
opposed, among the Protestants, the reception of the Gregorian
style.]

88 (return) [ For the religion and history of the Samaritans,
consult Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, a learned and impartial
work.]

89 (return) [ Sichem, Neapolis, Naplous, the ancient and modern
seat of the Samaritans, is situate in a valley between the barren
Ebal, the mountain of cursing to the north, and the fruitful
Garizim, or mountain of cursing to the south, ten or eleven
hours’ travel from Jerusalem. See Maundrel, Journey from Aleppo
&c.]

90 (return) [ Procop. Anecdot. c. 11. Theophan. Chron. p. 122.
John Malala Chron. tom. ii. p. 62. I remember an observation,
half philosophical. half superstitious, that the province which
had been ruined by the bigotry of Justinian, was the same through
which the Mahometans penetrated into the empire.]

91 (return) [ The expression of Procopius is remarkable. Anecdot.
c. 13.]

With these sentiments, it was incumbent on him, at least, to be
always in the right. In the first years of his administration, he
signalized his zeal as the disciple and patron of orthodoxy: the
reconciliation of the Greeks and Latins established the tome of
St. Leo as the creed of the emperor and the empire; the
Nestorians and Eutychians were exposed, on either side, to the
double edge of persecution; and the four synods of Nice,
Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, were ratified by the code
of a Catholic lawgiver. 92 But while Justinian strove to maintain
the uniformity of faith and worship, his wife Theodora, whose
vices were not incompatible with devotion, had listened to the
Monophysite teachers; and the open or clandestine enemies of the
church revived and multiplied at the smile of their gracious
patroness. The capital, the palace, the nuptial bed, were torn by
spiritual discord; yet so doubtful was the sincerity of the royal
consorts, that their seeming disagreement was imputed by many to
a secret and mischievous confederacy against the religion and
happiness of their people. 93 The famous dispute of the Three
Chapters, 94 which has filled more volumes than it deserves
lines, is deeply marked with this subtile and disingenuous
spirit. It was now three hundred years since the body of Origen
95 had been eaten by the worms: his soul, of which he held the
preexistence, was in the hands of its Creator; but his writings
were eagerly perused by the monks of Palestine. In these
writings, the piercing eye of Justinian descried more than ten
metaphysical errors; and the primitive doctor, in the company of
Pythagoras and Plato, was devoted by the clergy to the eternity
of hell-fire, which he had presumed to deny. Under the cover of
this precedent, a treacherous blow was aimed at the council of
Chalcedon. The fathers had listened without impatience to the
praise of Theodore of Mopsuestia; 96 and their justice or
indulgence had restored both Theodore of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of
Edessa, to the communion of the church. But the characters of
these Oriental bishops were tainted with the reproach of heresy;
the first had been the master, the two others were the friends,
of Nestorius; their most suspicious passages were accused under
the title of the three chapters; and the condemnation of their
memory must involve the honor of a synod, whose name was
pronounced with sincere or affected reverence by the Catholic
world. If these bishops, whether innocent or guilty, were
annihilated in the sleep of death, they would not probably be
awakened by the clamor which, after a hundred years, was raised
over their grave. If they were already in the fangs of the
daemon, their torments could neither be aggravated nor assuaged
by human industry. If in the company of saints and angels they
enjoyed the rewards of piety, they must have smiled at the idle
fury of the theological insects who still crawled on the surface
of the earth. The foremost of these insects, the emperor of the
Romans, darted his sting, and distilled his venom, perhaps
without discerning the true motives of Theodora and her
ecclesiastical faction. The victims were no longer subject to his
power, and the vehement style of his edicts could only proclaim
their damnation, and invite the clergy of the East to join in a
full chorus of curses and anathemas. The East, with some
hesitation, consented to the voice of her sovereign: the fifth
general council, of three patriarchs and one hundred and
sixty-five bishops, was held at Constantinople; and the authors,
as well as the defenders, of the three chapters were separated
from the communion of the saints, and solemnly delivered to the
prince of darkness. But the Latin churches were more jealous of
the honor of Leo and the synod of Chalcedon: and if they had
fought as they usually did under the standard of Rome, they might
have prevailed in the cause of reason and humanity. But their
chief was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy; the throne of St.
Peter, which had been disgraced by the simony, was betrayed by
the cowardice, of Vigilius, who yielded, after a long and
inconsistent struggle, to the despotism of Justinian and the
sophistry of the Greeks. His apostasy provoked the indignation of
the Latins, and no more than two bishops could be found who would
impose their hands on his deacon and successor Pelagius. Yet the
perseverance of the popes insensibly transferred to their
adversaries the appellation of schismatics; the Illyrian,
African, and Italian churches were oppressed by the civil and
ecclesiastical powers, not without some effort of military force;
97 the distant Barbarians transcribed the creed of the Vatican,
and, in the period of a century, the schism of the three chapters
expired in an obscure angle of the Venetian province. 98 But the
religious discontent of the Italians had already promoted the
conquests of the Lombards, and the Romans themselves were
accustomed to suspect the faith and to detest the government of
their Byzantine tyrant.

92 (return) [ See the Chronicle of Victor, p. 328, and the
original evidence of the laws of Justinian. During the first
years of his reign, Baronius himself is in extreme good humor
with the emperor, who courted the popes, till he got them into
his power.]

93 (return) [ Procopius, Anecdot. c. 13. Evagrius, l. iv. c. 10.
If the ecclesiastical never read the secret historian, their
common suspicion proves at least the general hatred.]

94 (return) [ On the subject of the three chapters, the original
acts of the vth general council of Constantinople supply much
useless, though authentic, knowledge, (Concil. tom. vi. p.
1-419.) The Greek Evagrius is less copious and correct (l. iv. c.
38) than the three zealous Africans, Facundus, (in his twelve
books, de tribus capitulis, which are most correctly published by
Sirmond,) Liberatus, (in his Breviarium, c. 22, 23, 24,) and
Victor Tunnunensis in his Chronicle, (in tom. i. Antiq. Lect.
Canisii, 330—334.) The Liber Pontificalis, or Anastasius, (in
Vigilio, Pelagio, &c.,) is original Italian evidence. The modern
reader will derive some information from Dupin (Bibliot. Eccles.
tom. v. p. 189—207) and Basnage, (Hist. de l’Eglise, tom. i. p.
519—541;) yet the latter is too firmly resolved to depreciate the
authority and character of the popes.]

95 (return) [ Origen had indeed too great a propensity to imitate
the old philosophers, (Justinian, ad Mennam, in Concil. tom. vi.
p. 356.) His moderate opinions were too repugnant to the zeal of
the church, and he was found guilty of the heresy of reason.]

96 (return) [ Basnage (Praefat. p. 11—14, ad tom. i. Antiq. Lect.
Canis.) has fairly weighed the guilt and innocence of Theodore of
Mopsuestia. If he composed 10,000 volumes, as many errors would
be a charitable allowance. In all the subsequent catalogues of
heresiarchs, he alone, without his two brethren, is included; and
it is the duty of Asseman (Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 203—207)
to justify the sentence.]

97 (return) [ See the complaints of Liberatus and Victor, and the
exhortations of Pope Pelagius to the conqueror and exarch of
Italy. Schisma.. per potestates publicas opprimatur, &c.,
(Concil. tom. vi. p. 467, &c.) An army was detained to suppress
the sedition of an Illyrian city. See Procopius, (de Bell. Goth.
l. iv. c. 25:). He seems to promise an ecclesiastical history. It
would have been curious and impartial.]

98 (return) [ The bishops of the patriarchate of Aquileia were
reconciled by Pope Honorius, A.D. 638, (Muratori, Annali d’
Italia, tom. v. p. 376;) but they again relapsed, and the schism
was not finally extinguished till 698. Fourteen years before, the
church of Spain had overlooked the vth general council with
contemptuous silence, (xiii. Concil. Toretan. in Concil. tom.
vii. p. 487—494.)]

Justinian was neither steady nor consistent in the nice process
of fixing his volatile opinions and those of his subjects. In his
youth he was offended by the slightest deviation from the
orthodox line; in his old age he transgressed the measure of
temperate heresy, and the Jacobites, not less than the Catholics,
were scandalized by his declaration, that the body of Christ was
incorruptible, and that his manhood was never subject to any
wants and infirmities, the inheritance of our mortal flesh. This
fantastic opinion was announced in the last edicts of Justinian;
and at the moment of his seasonable departure, the clergy had
refused to subscribe, the prince was prepared to persecute, and
the people were resolved to suffer or resist. A bishop of Treves,
secure beyond the limits of his power, addressed the monarch of
the East in the language of authority and affection. “Most
gracious Justinian, remember your baptism and your creed. Let not
your gray hairs be defiled with heresy. Recall your fathers from
exile, and your followers from perdition. You cannot be ignorant,
that Italy and Gaul, Spain and Africa, already deplore your fall,
and anathematize your name. Unless, without delay, you destroy
what you have taught; unless you exclaim with a loud voice, I
have erred, I have sinned, anathema to Nestorius, anathema to
Eutyches, you deliver your soul to the same flames in which they
will eternally burn.” He died and made no sign. 99 His death
restored in some degree the peace of the church, and the reigns
of his four successors, Justin Tiberius, Maurice, and Phocas, are
distinguished by a rare, though fortunate, vacancy in the
ecclesiastical history of the East. 100

99 (return) [ Nicetus, bishop of Treves, (Concil. tom. vi. p.
511-513:) he himself, like most of the Gallican prelates,
(Gregor. Epist. l. vii. 5 in Concil. tom. vi. p. 1007,) was
separated from the communion of the four patriarchs by his
refusal to condemn the three chapters. Baronius almost pronounces
the damnation of Justinian, (A.D. 565, No. 6.)]

100 (return) [ After relating the last heresy of Justinian, (l.
iv. c. 39, 40, 41,) and the edict of his successor, (l. v. c. 3,)
the remainder of the history of Evagrius is filled with civil,
instead of ecclesiastical events.]

The faculties of sense and reason are least capable of acting on
themselves; the eye is most inaccessible to the sight, the soul
to the thought; yet we think, and even feel, that one will, a
sole principle of action, is essential to a rational and
conscious being. When Heraclius returned from the Persian war,
the orthodox hero consulted his bishops, whether the Christ whom
he adored, of one person, but of two natures, was actuated by a
single or a double will. They replied in the singular, and the
emperor was encouraged to hope that the Jacobites of Egypt and
Syria might be reconciled by the profession of a doctrine, most
certainly harmless, and most probably true, since it was taught
even by the Nestorians themselves. 101 The experiment was tried
without effect, and the timid or vehement Catholics condemned
even the semblance of a retreat in the presence of a subtle and
audacious enemy. The orthodox (the prevailing) party devised new
modes of speech, and argument, and interpretation: to either
nature of Christ they speciously applied a proper and distinct
energy; but the difference was no longer visible when they
allowed that the human and the divine will were invariably the
same. 102 The disease was attended with the customary symptoms:
but the Greek clergy, as if satiated with the endless controversy
of the incarnation, instilled a healing counsel into the ear of
the prince and people. They declared themselves Monothelites
(asserters of the unity of will), but they treated the words as
new, the questions as superfluous; and recommended a religious
silence as the most agreeable to the prudence and charity of the
gospel. This law of silence was successively imposed by the
ecthesis or exposition of Heraclius, the type or model of his
grandson Constans; 103 and the Imperial edicts were subscribed
with alacrity or reluctance by the four patriarchs of Rome,
Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch. But the bishop and monks
of Jerusalem sounded the alarm: in the language, or even in the
silence, of the Greeks, the Latin churches detected a latent
heresy: and the obedience of Pope Honorius to the commands of his
sovereign was retracted and censured by the bolder ignorance of
his successors. They condemned the execrable and abominable
heresy of the Monothelites, who revived the errors of Manes,
Apollinaris, Eutyches, &c.; they signed the sentence of
excommunication on the tomb of St. Peter; the ink was mingled
with the sacramental wine, the blood of Christ; and no ceremony
was omitted that could fill the superstitious mind with horror
and affright. As the representative of the Western church, Pope
Martin and his Lateran synod anathematized the perfidious and
guilty silence of the Greeks: one hundred and five bishops of
Italy, for the most part the subjects of Constans, presumed to
reprobate his wicked type, and the impious ecthesis of his
grandfather; and to confound the authors and their adherents with
the twenty-one notorious heretics, the apostates from the church,
and the organs of the devil. Such an insult under the tamest
reign could not pass with impunity. Pope Martin ended his days on
the inhospitable shore of the Tauric Chersonesus, and his oracle,
the abbot Maximus, was inhumanly chastised by the amputation of
his tongue and his right hand. 104 But the same invincible spirit
survived in their successors; and the triumph of the Latins
avenged their recent defeat, and obliterated the disgrace of the
three chapters. The synods of Rome were confirmed by the sixth
general council of Constantinople, in the palace and the presence
of a new Constantine, a descendant of Heraclius. The royal
convert converted the Byzantine pontiff and a majority of the
bishops; 105 the dissenters, with their chief, Macarius of
Antioch, were condemned to the spiritual and temporal pains of
heresy; the East condescended to accept the lessons of the West;
and the creed was finally settled, which teaches the Catholics of
every age, that two wills or energies are harmonized in the
person of Christ. The majesty of the pope and the Roman synod was
represented by two priests, one deacon, and three bishops; but
these obscure Latins had neither arms to compel, nor treasures to
bribe, nor language to persuade; and I am ignorant by what arts
they could determine the lofty emperor of the Greeks to abjure
the catechism of his infancy, and to persecute the religion of
his fathers. Perhaps the monks and people of Constantinople 106
were favorable to the Lateran creed, which is indeed the least
reasonable of the two: and the suspicion is countenanced by the
unnatural moderation of the Greek clergy, who appear in this
quarrel to be conscious of their weakness. While the synod
debated, a fanatic proposed a more summary decision, by raising a
dead man to life: the prelates assisted at the trial; but the
acknowledged failure may serve to indicate, that the passions and
prejudices of the multitude were not enlisted on the side of the
Monothelites. In the next generation, when the son of Constantine
was deposed and slain by the disciple of Macarius, they tasted
the feast of revenge and dominion: the image or monument of the
sixth council was defaced, and the original acts were committed
to the flames. But in the second year, their patron was cast
headlong from the throne, the bishops of the East were released
from their occasional conformity, the Roman faith was more firmly
replanted by the orthodox successors of Bardanes, and the fine
problems of the incarnation were forgotten in the more popular
and visible quarrel of the worship of images. 107

101 (return) [ This extraordinary, and perhaps inconsistent,
doctrine of the Nestorians, had been observed by La Croze,
(Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 19, 20,) and is more fully
exposed by Abulpharagius, (Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 292.
Hist. Dynast. p. 91, vers. Latin. Pocock.) and Asseman himself,
(tom. iv. p. 218.) They seem ignorant that they might allege the
positive authority of the ecthesis. (the common reproach of the
Monophysites) (Concil. tom. vii. p. 205.)]

102 (return) [ See the Orthodox faith in Petavius, (Dogmata
Theolog. tom. v. l. ix. c. 6—10, p. 433—447:) all the depths of
this controversy in the Greek dialogue between Maximus and
Pyrrhus, (acalcem tom. viii. Annal. Baron. p. 755—794,) which
relates a real conference, and produced as short-lived a
conversion.]

103 (return) [ Impiissimam ecthesim.... scelerosum typum (Concil.
tom. vii p. 366) diabolicae operationis genimina, (fors. germina,
or else the Greek in the original. Concil. p. 363, 364,) are the
expressions of the xviiith anathema. The epistle of Pope Martin
to Amandus, Gallican bishop, stigmatizes the Monothelites and
their heresy with equal virulence, (p. 392.)]

104 (return) [ The sufferings of Martin and Maximus are described
with simplicity in their original letters and acts, (Concil. tom.
vii. p. 63—78. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 656, No. 2, et annos
subsequent.) Yet the chastisement of their disobedience had been
previously announced in the Type of Constans, (Concil. tom. vii.
p. 240.)]

105 (return) [ Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 368) most
erroneously supposes that the 124 bishops of the Roman synod
transported themselves to Constantinople; and by adding them to
the 168 Greeks, thus composes the sixth council of 292 fathers.]

106 (return) [ The Monothelite Constans was hated by all, (says
Theophanes, Chron. p. 292). When the Monothelite monk failed in
his miracle, the people shouted, (Concil. tom. vii. p. 1032.) But
this was a natural and transient emotion; and I much fear that
the latter is an anticipation of the good people of
Constantinople.]

107 (return) [ The history of Monothelitism may be found in the
Acts of the Synods of Rome (tom. vii. p. 77—395, 601—608) and
Constantinople, (p. 609—1429.) Baronius extracted some original
documents from the Vatican library; and his chronology is
rectified by the diligence of Pagi. Even Dupin (Bibliotheque
Eccles. tom. vi. p. 57—71) and Basnage (Hist. de l’Eglise, tom.
i. p. 451—555) afford a tolerable abridgment.]

Before the end of the seventh century, the creed of the
incarnation, which had been defined at Rome and Constantinople,
was uniformly preached in the remote islands of Britain and
Ireland; 108 the same ideas were entertained, or rather the same
words were repeated, by all the Christians whose liturgy was
performed in the Greek or the Latin tongue. Their numbers, and
visible splendor, bestowed an imperfect claim to the appellation
of Catholics: but in the East, they were marked with the less
honorable name of Melchites, or Royalists; 109 of men, whose
faith, instead of resting on the basis of Scripture, reason, or
tradition, had been established, and was still maintained, by the
arbitrary power of a temporal monarch. Their adversaries might
allege the words of the fathers of Constantinople, who profess
themselves the slaves of the king; and they might relate, with
malicious joy, how the decrees of Chalcedon had been inspired and
reformed by the emperor Marcian and his virgin bride. The
prevailing faction will naturally inculcate the duty of
submission, nor is it less natural that dissenters should feel
and assert the principles of freedom. Under the rod of
persecution, the Nestorians and Monophysites degenerated into
rebels and fugitives; and the most ancient and useful allies of
Rome were taught to consider the emperor not as the chief, but as
the enemy of the Christians. Language, the leading principle
which unites or separates the tribes of mankind, soon
discriminated the sectaries of the East, by a peculiar and
perpetual badge, which abolished the means of intercourse and the
hope of reconciliation. The long dominion of the Greeks, their
colonies, and, above all, their eloquence, had propagated a
language doubtless the most perfect that has been contrived by
the art of man. Yet the body of the people, both in Syria and
Egypt, still persevered in the use of their national idioms; with
this difference, however, that the Coptic was confined to the
rude and illiterate peasants of the Nile, while the Syriac, 110
from the mountains of Assyria to the Red Sea, was adapted to the
higher topics of poetry and argument. Armenia and Abyssinia were
infected by the speech or learning of the Greeks; and their
Barbaric tongues, which have been revived in the studies of
modern Europe, were unintelligible to the inhabitants of the
Roman empire. The Syriac and the Coptic, the Armenian and the
Aethiopic, are consecrated in the service of their respective
churches: and their theology is enriched by domestic versions 111
both of the Scriptures and of the most popular fathers. After a
period of thirteen hundred and sixty years, the spark of
controversy, first kindled by a sermon of Nestorius, still burns
in the bosom of the East, and the hostile communions still
maintain the faith and discipline of their founders. In the most
abject state of ignorance, poverty, and servitude, the Nestorians
and Monophysites reject the spiritual supremacy of Rome, and
cherish the toleration of their Turkish masters, which allows
them to anathematize, on the one hand, St. Cyril and the synod of
Ephesus: on the other, Pope Leo and the council of Chalcedon. The
weight which they cast into the downfall of the Eastern empire
demands our notice, and the reader may be amused with the various
prospect of, I. The Nestorians; II. The Jacobites; 112 III. The
Maronites; IV. The Armenians; V. The Copts; and, VI. The
Abyssinians. To the three former, the Syriac is common; but of
the latter, each is discriminated by the use of a national idiom.

Yet the modern natives of Armenia and Abyssinia would be
incapable of conversing with their ancestors; and the Christians
of Egypt and Syria, who reject the religion, have adopted the
language of the Arabians. The lapse of time has seconded the
sacerdotal arts; and in the East, as well as in the West, the
Deity is addressed in an obsolete tongue, unknown to the majority
of the congregation.

108 (return) [ In the Lateran synod of 679, Wilfred, an
Anglo-Saxon bishop, subscribed pro omni Aquilonari parte
Britanniae et Hiberniae, quae ab Anglorum et Britonum, necnon
Scotorum et Pictorum gentibus colebantur, (Eddius, in Vit. St.
Wilfrid. c. 31, apud Pagi, Critica, tom. iii. p. 88.) Theodore
(magnae insulae Britanniae archiepiscopus et philosophus) was
long expected at Rome, (Concil. tom. vii. p. 714,) but he
contented himself with holding (A.D. 680) his provincial synod of
Hatfield, in which he received the decrees of Pope Martin and the
first Lateran council against the Monothelites, (Concil. tom.
vii. p. 597, &c.) Theodore, a monk of Tarsus in Cilicia, had been
named to the primacy of Britain by Pope Vitalian, (A.D. 688; see
Baronius and Pagi,) whose esteem for his learning and piety was
tainted by some distrust of his national character—ne quid
contrarium veritati fidei, Graecorum more, in ecclesiam cui
praeesset introduceret. The Cilician was sent from Rome to
Canterbury under the tuition of an African guide, (Bedae Hist.
Eccles. Anglorum. l. iv. c. 1.) He adhered to the Roman doctrine;
and the same creed of the incarnation has been uniformly
transmitted from Theodore to the modern primates, whose sound
understanding is perhaps seldom engaged with that abstruse
mystery.]

109 (return) [ This name, unknown till the xth century, appears
to be of Syriac origin. It was invented by the Jacobites, and
eagerly adopted by the Nestorians and Mahometans; but it was
accepted without shame by the Catholics, and is frequently used
in the Annals of Eutychius, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii.
p. 507, &c., tom. iii. p. 355. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch.
Alexandrin. p. 119.), was the acclamation of the fathers of
Constantinople, (Concil. tom. vii. p. 765.)]

110 (return) [ The Syriac, which the natives revere as the
primitive language, was divided into three dialects. 1. The
Aramoean, as it was refined at Edessa and the cities of
Mesopotamia. 2. The Palestine, which was used in Jerusalem,
Damascus, and the rest of Syria. 3. The Nabathoean, the rustic
idiom of the mountains of Assyria and the villages of Irak,
(Gregor, Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 11.) On the Syriac, sea
Ebed-Jesu, (Asseman. tom. iii. p. 326, &c.,) whose prejudice
alone could prefer it to the Arabic.]

111 (return) [ I shall not enrich my ignorance with the spoils of
Simon, Walton, Mill, Wetstein, Assemannus, Ludolphus, La Croze,
whom I have consulted with some care. It appears, 1. That, of all
the versions which are celebrated by the fathers, it is doubtful
whether any are now extant in their pristine integrity. 2. That
the Syriac has the best claim, and that the consent of the
Oriental sects is a proof that it is more ancient than their
schism.]

112 (return) [ In the account of the Monophysites and Nestorians,
I am deeply indebted to the Bibliotheca Orientalis
Clementino-Vaticana of Joseph Simon Assemannus. That learned
Maronite was despatched, in the year 1715, by Pope Clement XI. to
visit the monasteries of Egypt and Syria, in search of Mss. His
four folio volumes, published at Rome 1719—1728, contain a part
only, though perhaps the most valuable, of his extensive project.
As a native and as a scholar, he possessed the Syriac literature;
and though a dependent of Rome, he wishes to be moderate and
candid.]