SECT. V.] Rise of the sect of the Paulicians. 349 In several churches of France, a festival was celebrated in commemoration of the Virgin Mary's flight into Egypt -it was called the feast of the ass. A young girl, richly dressed, with a child in her arms, was placed upon an ass superbly decorated with trappings. The ass was led to the altar in solemn procession-high mass was said with great pomp-the ass was taught to kneel at proper places -a hymn, no less childish than impious, was sung in his praise; and when the ceremony was ended, the priest, instead of the usual words with which he dismissed the people, brayed three times like an ass; and the people, instead of the usual response, brayed three times in return.* Every thing sacred in religion," says Mons. Voltaire, when treating of this period," was disfigured in the West, by customs the most ridiculous and extravagant. The festivals of fools and asses were established in most churches. On days of solemnity, they created a bishop of fools; and an ass was led into the body of the church, dressed in a cape and four cornered cap. Church dances, feastings on the altar, revelry and obscene farces were the ceremonies observed on those festivals, and in many dioceses these extravagancies were continued for seven centuries. Were we to consider only the usages here related, we should imagine we were reading an account of Hottentots or Negroes; and it must be confessed that in many things we did not fall much short of them."+ But it is disgusting to relate such mummery, and perhaps I ought to apologise to my reader for laying it before him. He may rest assured, however, that it is only a sample from a fruitful crop which it were easy to pro carefully visited his large diocese—and was very successful among the people. But God was with him both in life and doctrine." History of the Church, vol. iii. p. 116. * Robertson's History of Charles V. vol. i. + General History, vol. i. ch. 35. duce. If he be shocked, as he well may, at contemplating such disgraceful things coupled with the name of the pure and holy religion of the Son of God, he will be glad to turn his attention with me to a more pleasing subject. While the Christian world, as it has been the fashion to call it, was thus sunk into an awful state of superstition at a moment when " darkness seemed to cover the earth, and gross darkness the people "it is pleasing to contemplate a ray of celestial light darting across the gloom. About the year 660, a new sect arose in the east, under the name of PAULICIANS, which is justly entitled to our attention. In Mananalis, an obscure town in the vicinity of Somosata, a person of the name of Constantine entertained at his house a deacon, who, having been a prisoner among the Mahometans, was returning from Syria, whither he had been carried away captive. From this passing stranger, Constantine received the precious gift of the New Testament in its original language, which, even at this early period, was so concealed from the vulgar that, Peter Siculus, to whom we owe most of our information on the history of the Paulicians, tells us, the first scruple of a Catholic, when he was advised to read the bible, was, "it is not lawful for us profane persons to read those sacred writings, but for the priests only." Indeed the gross ignorance which pervaded Europe at that time rendered the generality of the people incapable of reading that or any other book; but even those of the laity who could It is much to be regretted that of this class of Christians, all our infor. mation is derived through the medium of their enemies. The two original sources of intelligence concerning them are Photius, b, i. Contra Manichæos; and Siculus Hist. Manicheor, and from them Mosheim and Gibbon have deduced their account of the Paulicians. The latter writer has entered far more fully into the subject than the former, and, what is singular enough, he has displayed more candour! I have collected from these two modern au thors the concise account given above, and have aimed at impartiality, SECT. V.] Persecution of the Paulicians. 351 read, were dissuaded by their religious guides from meddling with the bible. Constantine, however, made the best use of the deacon's present-he studied his New Testament with unwearied assiduity--and more particularly the writings of the apostle Paul, from which he at length endeavoured to deduce a system of doctrine and worship. "He investigated the creed of primitive Christianity," says Gibbon," and whatever might be the success, a protestant reader will applaud the spirit of the inquiry." The knowledge to which Constantine himself was, under the divine blessing, enabled to attain, he gladly communicated to others around him, and a Christian church was collected. In a little time several individuals arose among them qualified for the work of the ministry; and several other churches were collected throughout Armenia and Cappadocia. It appears from the whole of their history to have been a leading object with Constantine and his brethren to restore, as far as possible, the profession of Christianity in all its primitive simplicity. Their public appearance soon attracted the notice of the Catholic party, who immediately branded them with the opprobrious appellation of Manichæans; but " they sincerely condemned the memory and opinions of the Manichæan sect, and complained of the injustice which impressed that invidious name on them." There is reason, therefore, to think, that they voluntarily adopted the name of Paulicians, and that they derived it from the name of the great apostle of the Gentiles. Constantine now assumed or received the name of Sylvanus, and others of his fellow labourers were called Titus, Timothy, Tichicus, &c. and as the churches arose and were formed in different places, they were named after those apostolic churches to which Paul originally addressed his inspired ↑ Gibbon, Ubi supra, * Decline and Fall, vol. x. ch. 54. writings, without any regard to the name of the city or town in which they assembled for worship. The labours of Constantine-Sylvanus, were crowned with success. Pontus and Cappadocia, regions once renowned for Christian piety, were again blessed with a diffusion of the light of divine truth. He himself resided in the neighbourhood of Colonia, in Pontus, and their congregations, in process of time, were diffused over the provinces of Asia Minor, to the westward of the Euphrates. "The Paulician teachers," says Gibbon, "were distinguished only by their scripturál names, by the modest title of fellow-pilgrims; by the austerity of their lives, their zeal and knowledge, and the credit of some extraordinary gift of the Holy Spirit. But they were incapable of desiring, or at least of obtaining the wealth and honours of the Catholic prelacy. Such antichristian pride they bitterly censured." Roused by the growing importance of the sect, the Greek emperors began to persecute the Paulicians with the most sanguinary severity; and the scenes of Galerius and Maximin were re-acted under the Christian forms and names. "To their excellent deeds," says the bigotted Peter Siculus," the divine and orthodox emperors added this virtue, that they ordered the Montanists and Manichæans (by which epithets they chose to stigmatise the Paulicians) to be capitally punished; and their books, wherever found, to be committed to the flames; also that if any person was found to have secreted them, he was to be put to death, and his goods confiscated." A Greek officer, armed with legal and military powers, appeared at Colonia, to strike the shepherd, and, if possible, reclaim the lost sheep to the Catholic fold. "By a refinement of cruelty, Simeon (the officer) placed the unfortunate Sylvanus before a line of his disciples, who were command SECT. V.] Persecution of the Paulicians. 853 ed, as the price of their own pardon, and the proof of their repentance, to massacre their spiritual father. They turned aside from the impious office; the stones dropt from their filial hands, and of the whole number, only one executioner could be found; a new David, as he is styled by the Catholics, who boldly overthrew the giant of heresy. ."* This apostate, whose name was Justus, stoned to death the father of the Paulicians, who had now laboured among them twenty-seven years. The treacherous Justus betrayed many others, probably of the pastors and teachers, who fared the fate of their venerable leader; while Simeon himself, struck with the evidences of divine grace apparent in the sufferers, embraced at length the faith which he came to destroy-renounced his station, resigned his honours and fortunes, became a zealous preacher among the Paulicians, and at last sealed his testimony with his blood.t During a period of one hundred and fifty years, these Christian churches seem to have been almost incessantly subjected to persecution, which they supported with Christian meekness and patience; and if the acts of their martyrdom, their preaching and their lives were distinctly recorded, I see no reason to doubt, that we should find in them the genuine successors of the Christians of the first two centuries. And in this as well as former instances, the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. A succession of teachers and churches arose, and a person named Sergius, who had laboured among them in the ministry of * Gibbon, ut supra. ↑ "Thrice hail, ye faithful shepherds of the fold, "And counted death "all gain " to live with God. VOL. I. HYPOCRISY, a poem by the Rev. C. Colton, parti p. 136. Z z |