"It was needful for me
to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints."--Jude 3.
1. The council of Nice,
already referred to, took notice of two sorts of Dissenters, who
held separate assemblies. These were the Cathari and Paulianists,
the latter were a kind of semi-Arians; the former were
Trinitarians (Novatianists,) who viewed the Catholic church as a
worldly community. These Puritans or Novatianists were
exceedingly numerous in Phrygia. [Lardner, Cred. of the Gos. v.
iii. p. 2, c. 47, p. 310] These Dissenters baptized all that
joined their assemblies by immersion in the name of the Trinity,
on a personal profession of faith; and if they had been baptized
before, they re-baptized them. Canons now were enacted by
aspiring prelates,+ yet the Greek Christians paid very little
regard to any ecclesiastical rule, and though successive
assemblies were called, the more the bishops tried to enforce
uniformity, the faster what they called heresy spread; so that,
in the twelfth century, the world was full of (dissidents,)
heretics. [Rob. Res. pp. 71-3]
[+ During the last century,
baptism was viewed as preparing the soul for glory, and
subsequently, it was delayed for years, or till death approached.
This delay and neglect, these prelates were anxious to recover
the people from, and in their expressions and zeal for the
ordinance, they brought the people to the other extreme, and
pernicious consequences ensued.
360 Basil expressed to his
people the bitter complaints those would make, who died
unbaptized.
360 Gregory Nazianzen speaks
of different punishments for different persons, in another world,
which is to be regulated by their treatment of baptism.
374 Ambrose says, "For
no one comes to the kingdom of heaven but by baptism. Those not
baptized may have a freedom from punishment, which is not
clear."
380 Chrysostum declares,
there is no receiving the bequeathed inheritance before one is
baptized.
388 Augustin asserts,
"Salvation of a person is completed by baptism and
conversion."
These assertions awakened
each person under these prelates’ charge, to receive
baptism; the penitent, the prisoner, sickly persons and children,
the dying, and dead bodies, received the purifying rite, in order
to avoid the purgatory of the unbaptized. This was the strong
limb to paedobaptism!]
2. It appears highly
probable, from many circumstances, that both the greater and
lesser Armenia were enlightened with the knowledge of the truth,
not long after the first rise of Christianity. The interests
in communion with Rome and Constantinople were, in this fourth
century, incorporated with the parent society. The character of
the Armenians was, that they were a frugal, laborious, stern, and
peaceable people, if let alone, but formidable and warlike, if
oppressed; which accounts for the policy of the government at
early periods, and the evils resulting in its change of measures
towards Dissenters in these and other provinces. [Rob. ut sup.]
While the catholics were engaged about the relics of Palestine,
and professors in hierarchies were subsiding into an awful and
secure slumber, a reformer appeared, in the person of one AERIUS,
a presbyter monk. "He excited divisions," says Mosheim
[Mosh. Hist. c. -1, p. 2, ch. 3, ~ 21], throughout Armenia,+
Pontus, and Cappadocia, by propagating opinions different from
those that were commonly received. He condemned prayers for the
dead, stated fasts, the celebration of Easter, and other rites of
that nature, in which the multitudes erroneously imagine that the
life and soul of religion consists. One of his principal tenets
was, that the bishops were not distinguished from presbyters by
any divine right; but, that according to the institution of the
New Testament their offices and authority were absolutely the
same. His great purpose seems to have been that of reducing
Christianity to its primitive simplicity.++ He erected a new
society, and we know, with the utmost certainty, that it was
highly agreeable to many good Christians, who were no longer able
to bear the tyranny and arrogance of the bishops of this century.
[* Mosheim History, C. 4, pt.
1, chapter 1, ~ 19. note. No one circumstance ever gave such
footing, or ever strengthened national establishments so much, as
infant baptism. Minor baptism was confined to no age; it might
have been at fourteen years, as in the Georgian nation, which
embraced Christianity under Constantine, Wall, pt. 2, p. 260, or
at seven or six, as recorded, Rob. Hist. Bap. pp. 144, 299. But
the general delay of baptism was a distress to the clergy, Id.
249. 381 Gregory at Constantinople, A.D., 381, and Austin, at
Hippo, introduced new views and rites. The first considered
children might be dipped at three years of age, Id. 3-19, and
also babes, if in danger of death, Id. 249, as dying unbaptized,
left their future state uncertain, ut sup.; the latter asserts,
infants are baptized for the pardon of sin, Wall, i. 303. The
anxiety on the part of the orthodox, to rescue children from the
errors of the Arians, was in this age manifest. No way promised
so much success as the obligations to keep the creed into which
each was solemnly baptized. This charity in both parties, Arians
and Trinitarians, furthered the infant cause, and gave additional
importance to those interests which aspired to orthodoxy or
eminency in numbers. See Eight causes furthering Paedobaptism,
Rob. Bap. c. 27.]
[+ Wolf, the Missionary,
says, "The priest (of Armenia) puts the child into the
water, and washes the head with three handfuls of water, and
prays, and saith, ‘I baptize thee in the name, &c., and
then dips the child," &c., Bap. Mag. 1826, v. xviii. p.
29. This is confirmed by Missionaries Smith and Dwight, who say,
according to the rules of the Armenian church, baptism consists
in plunging the whole body in water three times, as the sacred
formula is repeated. Miss. Reseat. in Armenia, p. 312, &c.
See Simon’s Critical History of the Relig. and Customs of
Eastern Nations, chap. 12 and 13, p. 134, &c.]
[++ We are unacquainted with
the reformer’s views and success. The mode of baptizing in
the East, is farther stated by Millar, who asserts, "In all
the oriental provinces with the northern nations, immersion is
the only mode of baptism, the child is dipped three times in
Russia, as in the Greek church." Geog. v. ii. p. 480, col.
1.]
3. We have now no
interesting matters to give, nor can we detail any information,
to break the monotony of the aspect of the interests generally,
for nearly two centuries. The Nonconformists continued to be
dispersed all over the empire, and had trusted to Providence for
liberty to worship. Their history is large, and has proved
difficult to many. The clergy were always troublesome, but never
attempted their conversion. Some emperors had been indifferent to
them, others had cherished them, others had persecuted them. We
shall leave the general history, and endeavor to identify one
class of consistent Puritans. Few of the clergy of the
establishments could compose a discourse in the seventh century,
when Mahomet arose to scourge the nations.
[Mahomet has rendered baptizo
in the Koran, divine dying. Immersion is only one part, the
tinging of the soul with faith and grace, is the other; or
tincturing the mind with the doctrines of the gospel, we should
say. In this way all through the Koran, he has fully translated
the word, Rob. Bap. p. 7, and 493. But dying is not done by
sprinkling or pouring, but the subject dyed is dipped.
Gale’s Ref. Let. 3, p. 83. The Mahometans are totally
immersed, or bathed in water. Sale’s Koran, v. i. s. 4, pp.
13840. This mode of baptizing is further evident from the most
respectable historians. The mosque of Damascus, says Dr. Pocock,
has an octagon baptistery, View of the East, v. ii. b. 2, c. 8,
p. 120. On each side of the mosque, are fountains for the purpose
of washing before worship, Id. v. ii. b. 3, oh. 1, p. 128. No
unbaptized person may enter a Mahometan church, Lon.]
Mosheim speaks of a drooping
faction, in this century, "The Russians baptize adults
in the river, by trine immersion," with whom the Greek
church was engaged in the most bitter and violent controversy.
This drooping faction in Armenia, he calls Manicheans, and says
they were revived by Paul and John, two brothers, who revived the
doctrine, and modified it, from which sprang a new sect. But as
Dr. Mosheim’s account is at variance with others, we shall
select our materials of this new sect from other sources. [by
Millar’s Geog. ib. and see authorities quoted in
Robinson’s Letter to Dr. Turner, Works, iv. p. 235]
Bathing was a practice of
great antiquity; the Greeks, as well as the heroic age, are said
to have constantly bathed. Immersion would to such be very
agreeable. [Floyer’s Hist. of Bathing; Dr. G.S.
Howard’s New Royal Encyclo. v. i. Art. Bathing; Sir
R. Ker Porter’s Travels, v. i. p. 231]
4. It was about the year
653, that a new sect came into notice in the East,* under the
name of PAULICIANS, which deserves our attention. There
resided in the city of Mananalis, in Armenia, an obscure person
of the name of CONSTANTINE, with whom this sect appears to
have originated. One day, a stranger called upon him, who had
been a prisoner among the Saracens, in Syria, and having obtained
his release, was returning home through this city; he was kindly
received by Constantine, and entertained some days at his house.
To requite the hospitality of his generous host, he gave
Constantine two manuscripts, which he had brought out of Syria;
and these were the four gospels, and the Epistles of the apostle
Paul. From the nature of the gift, it is not unreasonable to
conclude that the stranger set a value upon these manuscripts,
that he was acquainted with their contents, and was one who knew
the truth, all which receives corroboration from the fact, that
he had been an office-bearer, a deacon in a Christian church. It
is equally probable that the conversation of Constantine and his
guest would occasionally turn upon the contents of these
manuscripts. That his conversation and present had some effects
on the mind of Constantine, is evident, for, from the time he got
acquainted with the contents of these writings, it is said he
would touch no other books. He threw away his Manichean library,
exploded and rejected many of the absurd notions of his
countrymen. He became a teacher of the doctrines of Christ and
his apostles. [Jones’s Lecr. on Ec. Hist. v. ii. p. 179. 9,
ch. 2] "He formed to himself," says Milner, "a
plan of divinity from the New Testament; and as Paul is the most
systematic of all the apostles, Constantine very properly
attached himself to his writings with peculiar attention. From
the attention this sect paid to this apostle’s epistles and
doctrine, they obtained the name of Paulicians." "In
the present instance," continues Milner, "I see reason
to suppose the Paulicians to have been perfect originals. The
little that has been mentioned concerning them, carries entirely
this appearance; and I hope it may be shortly evident that they
originated from a heavenly influence, teaching and converting
them; and that, in them we have one of those extraordinary
effusions of the divine Spirit (on his word), by which the
knowledge of Christ and the practice of godliness is kept alive
in the world." [History of Church, Cent. 9, ch. 2]
These originals, or rather,
restorers of the New Testament order of things, being allowed by
all historians to have been the encouragers, if not the main
strength of the Albigensian churches in France, at after periods;
we shall be the more particular in our attention to their
character and practice. [Gibbon’s Ro. Hist. Ch. 54]
[* In Vaughan’s Life
of Wickliff, v. i. c. 2, s. 1, p. 115, the denominational
aspect of this sect is suppressed, though Gibbon has spoken out;
this course is pursued through that work. Those who neglect part
of the commission, are afraid to mention its performance in other
denominations.]
[The Syrians, the Armenians,
the Persians, and all the oriental nations, who must have
understood the Greek word baptizo, have practised dipping,
and it is so rendered in their versions of the Scriptures. Rob.
Hist. Bap. p. 7; Ryland’s Cand. Reasons. Baptizo is
rendered to dip, by the Peshito, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic,
Coptic, Gothic, German or Luther, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish
versions. See Greenfield’s Del. of the Mahratta version, pp.
40-44]
5. The Paulicians
sincerely condemned the memory and opinions of the Manichean
sect, and complained of the injustice which impressed that
invidious name on the simple followers of Paul and Christ.
The objects which had been transformed by the magic of
superstition, appeared to the eyes of the Paulicians’ in
their genuine and naked colors. Of the ecclesiastical chain, many
links were broken by these reformers; and against the gradual
innovations of discipline and doctrine, they were strongly
guarded by habit and aversion, as by the silence of Paul and the
Evangelists. They attached themselves with peculiar devotion to
the writings and character of Paul, and in whom they gloried. In
the gospels, and epistles of Paul, Constantine investigated the
creed of the primitive Christians; and whatever might be the
success, a Protestant reader will applaud the spirit of the
inquiry. In practice, or at least in theory, of the sacraments,
the Paulicians were inclined to abolish all visible objects of
worship, and the words of the gospel were, in their judgments,
the baptism and communion of the faithful. A creed thus simple
and spiritual, was not adapted to the genius of the times, and
the rational Christian was offended at the violation offered to
his religion by the Paulicians. [Gibbon, ut sup]
6. In confirmation of the
above historian, as to their views of the ordinance of Baptism,
we subjoin the authorities of a few respectable writers.
In these churches of the
Paulicians, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper,
they held to be peculiar to the communion of the faithful; i.e.,
to be restricted to believers." [Jones’s Lect. v. ii.
p. 181]
The Paulicians or Bogomilians
baptized and re-baptized adults by immersion, as the Manicheans
and all other denominations did in the East, upon which mode
there was no dispute in the Grecian church. [Rob. Bapt. p. 211;
and Res. pp. 90]
"It is evident,"
says Mosheim, "they rejected the baptism of infants. They
were not charged with any error concerning baptism." [Mosh.
Hist., Cent. 2, pt. 2, oh. 5, ~ 4 and note]
"They, with the
Manicheans, were Anabaptists, or rejecters of infant
baptism," says Dr. Allix, "and were consequently often
reproached with that term." [Rem. Ch. Pied. eh. 15, p. 138,
and Rob. Bap., p. 497]
"They were simply
scriptural in the use of the sacraments," says Milner,
"they were orthodox in the doctrine of the Trinity, they
knew of no other Mediator than the Lord Jesus Christ." [Ch.
Hist. Cent. 9, ch. 2]
7. These people were
called ACEPHALI, or headless (from having no distinct order of
clergy or presiding person in their assemblies) and were hooted
in councils for re-baptizing in private houses, says Robinson,
and holding conventicles; and for calling the established church
a worldly community, and re-baptizing such as joined their
churches. [Res. p. 92] The religious principles and practices
of these people are purposely mangled and misrepresented, but it
is possible to obtain some evidences of what they were. They are
charged with neglecting the Old Testament; but they knew that
economy was abolished, they therefore rejected it as a rule of
faith, not as history. The expounders of Genesis filled the
church with vain disputes about matter and spirit, the origin and
duration of the world. They saw the priests set up Exodus,
Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, as rules for an hierarchy.
The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, gave
kings authority to slay and kill in the cause of Jesus. And the
infant cause not complied with, required the cutting off, which
has been but too successfully prosecuted by the advocates of the
rite. The Paulicians, with other dissenters, rejected the
Pentateuch and the historical books down to Job, as a rule of
faith and practice in a Christian community, and received the
devotional and prophetical parts with the New Testament, as a law
for the Lord’s house. [Res. p. 90, and Hist. of Bap. p. 450]
The writings and the lives of their eminent ministers are totally
lost; so that we know nothing of these men but from the pens of
their enemies, yet even these confess their excellency.
[Milner’s Ch. Hist. Cent. 9, ch. 2]
8. But we now return to
their efforts. Constantine gave himself the scriptural name of
SYLVANUS. He preached with great success in Pontus and
Cappadocia, regions once enlightened and renowned for
Christianity and suffering piety (1 Pet. 1) were again blessed
with the gospel through his exertions. Great numbers of disciples
were made and gathered into societies. The body of Christians in
Armenia came over to the Paulicians, and embraced their views. In
a little time, congregations were gathered in the provinces of
Asia Minor, to the westward of the river Euphrates. Their
opinions were also silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and in the
kingdom beyond the Alps (France).
Churches were formed as
much upon the plan and model of the apostolic churches as it was
in their power to bring them. Six of their principal churches
took the names of those to which Paul addressed his epistles,
Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica; while
the names of Sylvanus’s fellow-teachers were Titus, Timothy,
Tychicus, "This innocent allegory," says Gibbon [Ro.
Hist., ch. 54], "revived the memory and example of the first
ages." The Paulician teachers were thus distinguished only
by their scriptural names. They were known by the modest title of
fellow-pilgrims, by the austerity of their lives, their zeal or
knowledge, and the credit of some extraordinary gifts of the Holy
Spirit. They were incapable of desiring the wealth and honors of
the Catholic prelacy; such antichristian pride they bitterly
censured; and even the rank of elders or presbyters was condemned
as an institution of the Jewish synagogue. ["The candor of
Gibbon is remarkable in this part of his history."--Milner]
There is no mention in all the account of this people of any
clergy among them. [Rob. Res. p. 80] Though charged with the
Manichean errors, they have been honorably freed from this
reproach by respectable writers. [Jortin’s Rem. on Hist.
v. iii., p. 498, and Lardner’s Cred. of the Gosp. History,
pt. 2, oh. 63, v. iii., p. 546] They called themselves
Christians, but the Catholics they named Romans, as if they had
been heathens. [Lardner, Id. p. 407]
9. We have here exhibited
a confession of simple worship, a scriptural constitution to
their churches and its officers, with a blameless feature in the
manners of these Christians, which has been conceded by their
enemies. Their standard of perfection was so high in
Christian morals that their increasing congregations were divided
into two classes of disciples. [These two classes can be traced
through the Albigensian, Waldensian, German, and Dutch Baptist
Churches, from this parent stock.] They had not any
ecclesiastical government, administered by bishops, priests, or
deacons: they had no sacred order of men distinguished by their
manner of life, their habit, or any other circumstance from the
rest of the assembly. They had certain teachers whom they called
companions in the journey of life; among these there reigned a
perfect equality, and they had no peculiar rights, privileges,
nor any external mark of dignity to distinguish them from the
people. They recommended to the people without exception, and
that with the most affecting and ardent zeal, the constant and
assiduous perusal of the Scriptures, and expressed the utmost
indignation against the Greeks who allowed to the priests alone
an access to those sacred fountains of divine knowledge [Mosh.
Hist. C. 9, p. 2, ch. 5,~5]
No object can be more
laudable than the attempt to bring back the Christian profession
to its original simplicity, which evidently appears to have been
the aim of the Paulicians, though for this commendable conduct, terms
of reproach and epithets of disgrace have been heaped on their
memories by interested historians and dictionary writers. In
this good work of preaching and evangelizing provinces, Sylvanus
spent twenty-seven years of his life, taking up his residence at
Cobossa, and disseminating his opinions all around. The united
exertions of these people, their scriptural views, doctrine,
discipline, and itinerating system, were attended with evident
displays of divine approbation, and multitudes embraced a gospel
simply and fully preached.
10. Alarmed at the
progress these novel opinions were making, and discovering the
growing importance of the Paulicians, the church party
"engaged in the most bitter and virulent controversy with
them." Ineffectual in their efforts, the Greek emperors
began to persecute them with the most sanguinary severity.
The Paulicians were sentenced to be capitally punished, and their
books, wherever found, to be committed to the flames; and
further, that if any person was found to have secreted them, he
was to be put to death, and his goods confiscated.
A Greek officer named Simeon,
armed with legal and military authority, appeared at CORONIA to
strike the shepherd, Sylvanus, and to reclaim, if possible, the
lost sheep. By a refinement of cruelty, this minister of justice
placed the unfortunate Sylvanus before a line of his disciples,
who were commanded, as the price of their pardon, and as proof of
their penitence, to stone to death their spiritual Father. The
affectionate flock turned aside from the impious office; the
stones dropped from their filial hands; and of the whole number,
only one executioner could be found. This apostate, Justus, after
putting Sylvanus to death, gained by some means admittance into
communion, and again deceived and betrayed his unsuspecting
brethren; and as many as were treacherously ascertained, and
could be collected, were massed together into an immense pile,
and by order of the emperor, consumed to ashes. Simeon, the
officer, struck with astonishment at the readiness with which the
Paulicians could die for their religion, examined their
arguments, and became himself a convert, renounced his honors and
fortune, and three years afterwards went to Cobossa, and became
the successor of Constantine Sylvanus, a zealous preacher among
the Paulicians, and at last sealed his testimony with his blood.
[Milner and Jones, ut sup] To free the East from those troubles
and commotions said to arise from the Paulician doctrines, a
great number of them were transported into THRACE during this
century; but still a greater number were left in Syria and the
adjoining countries. From Thrace these people passed into
Bulgaria and Sclavonia, where they took root, and settled in
their own church order.
From these churches, at after
periods colonies were sent out, and they are said to have
inundated Europe, [Mosh. Hist. c. 11, p. 2, ch. 5, ~ 2, 3] though
some relics of these ancient communities were to be traced till
the fifteenth century.
11. From the blood and
ashes of the first Paulician victims, a succession of teachers
and congregations repeatedly arose. The Greeks, to subdue
them, made use both of arguments and arms, with all the terror of
penal laws, without effecting their object. The great instrument
of this people’s multiplication was, the alone use of the
New Testament, of which some pleasing anecdotes are related. One
Sergius was recommended by a Paulician woman to read Paul’s
writings, and his attention to the sacred records brought him to
embrace their views. For thirty-four years he devoted himself to
the ministry of the gospel. Through every city and province that
Sergius could reach, he spread abroad the savor of the knowledge
of Christ, and with such success, that the clergy in the
hierarchies considered him to be the forerunner of Antichrist;
and declared he was producing the great apostasy foretold by
Paul. The emperors, in conjunction with the clergy, exerted their
zeal with a peculiar degree of bitterness and fury against this
people. Though every kind. of oppressive measure and means was
used, yet all efforts for their suppression proved fruitless,
"nor could all their power and all their barbarity, exhaust
the patience nor conquer the obstinacy of that inflexible people,
who possessed," says Mosheim, "a fortitude worthy of a
better cause"!
12. The face of things
changed towards the end of the eighth century, and the prospects
of this harassed people brightened under the emperor Nicephorus,
who restored to them their civil and religious privileges.
During this auspicious season the Paulicians widely disseminated
their opinions, and it is recorded that they became formidable to
the East. [Chambers’ Cyclop. Art. Paulicians] Those
persecuting laws which had been suspended for some years, were
renewed and enforced with redoubled fury under the reigns of
Michael and Leo, who made strict inquisition throughout every
province in the Grecian empire, and inflicted capital punishment
upon such of them as refused to return to the bosom of the
church. These decrees drove the Paulicians into desperate
measures. "Oppression maketh a wise man mad." [Gibbon
renders an indirect apology for the conduct of these people at
this period. Hist. ch. 54] The Paulicians are now charged with
having put to death some of their clerical oppressors, and also
of taking refuge in those provinces governed by Saracens, and
that in union with those barbarians, they infested the Grecian
states.
The power and influence of
these dissidents were found to be so great as to suggest the
policy of allowing them to return to their own habitations, and
dwelling there in tranquility. The severest persecution
experienced by them was encouraged by the empress Theodora, A.D.
845. Her decrees were severe, but the cruelty with which
they were put in execution by her officers was horrible beyond
expression. Mountains and hills were covered with
inhabitants. Her sanguinary inquisitors explored cities and
mountains in lesser Asia. After confiscating the goods and
property of one hundred thousand of these people, the owners to
that number were put to death in the most barbarous manner, and
made to expire slowly under a variety of the most exquisite
tortures. The flatterers of the empress boast of having
extirpated in nine years that number of Paulicians. Many of them
were scattered abroad, particularly in Bulgaria. Some fortified
the city of Tephrice and Philippopolis, from which last city they
were called Philippopolitans; and though they were driven hence,
yet the spirit of independence was not subdued. A portion of this
people emigrated from Thrace, and their doctrines soon struck
deep root in European soil. Such as escaped from the inquisitors
fled to the Saracens, who received them with compassion; and in
conjunction with whom, under experienced officers, they
maintained a war with the Grecian nation for the period of one
hundred and fifty years. During the reign of John Zimicus, they
gained considerable strength, and during the tenth century, they
spread themselves abroad throughout different provinces. From
Bulgaria they removed into Italy, and spreading themselves from
thence through the other provinces of Europe, "they became
extremely troublesome to the Roman pontiffs upon many
occasions.’’ Here the history of this
interesting-people rests, so far as it respects the Levant; but
we shall give a slight statement of their migratory movements in
order to make our future sections illustrative of these people,
though under different names.
13. "From
Italy," says Mosheim, "the Paulicians sent colonies
into almost all the other provinces of Europe, and formed
gradually a considerable number of religious assemblies, who
adhered to their doctrine, and who realized every opposition and
indignity from the popes. It is undoubtedly certain, from the
most authentic records, a considerable number of them were, about
the middle of the eleventh century, settled in Lombardy,
Insubria, but principally at Milan; and that many of them led a
wandering life in France, Germany, and other countries, where
they captivated the esteem and admiration of the multitude by
their sanctity. In Italy, they were called Paterini and Cathari.
In France, they were denominated Bulgarians, from the kingdom of
their emigration, also Publicans, instead of Paulicians, and boni
homines, good men; but were chiefly known by the term
Albigenses, from the town of Alby, in the Upper Languedoc. The
first religious assembly which the Paulicians formed in Europe is
said to have been at Orleans, in the year 1017, on which we shall
enlarge under the churches in France, to which we shall repair
after we have traced their existence and labors in the kingdom of
Italy.
14. Here we may be
permitted to review the apostolic character and exertions of this
extensive body of people, while we may express our surprise at
the virulent opposition, the cruel measures used, and the
extensive sacrifice of human life, for successive ages, on the
alone ground of religious views. A special instance of divine
grace was displayed in this people’s rise and early success;
and we must attribute their preservation and enlargement to the
exercise of the same compassion. An evident mark of apostolic
spirit possessed by this people must be admitted by all; without
any funds or public societies to countenance or support the
arduous undertaking, otherwise than their respective churches,
the Paulicians fearlessly penetrated the most barbarous parts of
Europe, and went single-handed, and single eyed, to the conflict
with every grade of character. In several instances they suffered
death or martyrdom, not counting their lives dear, so that they
could promote the cause of their Redeemer. [See Mosheim’s
History; Gibbon’s Ro. Hist. ch. 54; Robinson’s Eccl.
Res. ch. 6, pp. 77-79; Jones’s Lectures on Eccl. Hist. v.
ii., pp. 179--184]
ORCHARD'S TABLE OF CONTENTS
BAPTIST HISTORY
BAPTIST HISTORY & DOCTRINE SITE MAP
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