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nians, who were converted to christianity at the end of the ninth century, petitioned to have the fervice in their own language, and it was granted to them. Pope John VIII. to whom the request was made, thanked God that the Sclavonian character had been invented, because God would be praised in that language. He ordered, however, that the gospels fhould be read in Latin, but that afterwards they should be interpreted to the people, that they might understand them, as was done, he says, in fome churches*. .

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But afterwards, Wratiflas king of Bohemia applying to Gregory VII. for leave to celebrate divine fervice in the fame Sclavonian tongue, it was abfolutely refused. For, faid this pope, after confidering of it, "it appeared that God chofe that "the fcripture fhould be obfcure in fome places, " left if it was clear to all the world, it should be

defpifed; and alfo lead people into errors, being "ill understood by their ignorance." This, says Fleury, was the beginning of fuch prohibitions t.

The practice of the church of Rome at prefent is very various. In Portugal, Spain, Italy, and in general in all thofe countries in which the inquifition is established, the reading of the fcriptures is forbidden. France was divided on this fubject, the Janfenifts allowing it, and the Jefuits

• Bafnage, vol. iii. 471.

+ A. D. 1080.

refuling

refufing it. For the council of Trent having declared the vulgate verfion of the Bible to be authentic, the Jefuits maintained that this was meant to be a prohibit.on of any other verfion *.

After the council of Trent this evil was much increased. For the bishops affembled at Bologna, by order of Julius III. advised that the reading of the fcriptures fhould be permitted as little as poffible, because the power of the popes had always been the greatest when they were the leaft read; alleging that it was the fcriptures which had raised the dreadful tempeft with which the church was almoft funk, and that no perfon ought to be permitted to know more of them than is contained in the mafs. His fucceffor profited by this advice, and put the bible into the catalogue of probibited books †.

The cardinal Cufa, in order to justify the condemnation of Wickliffe, in the council of Conftance, faid that the fcriptures must be explained according to the prefent doctrine of the church; and that when the inftitutions of the church change, the explication of the scripture should change alfo; and the council of Trent has decided that traditions ought to be received with the fame respect as the fcriptures, because they have the fame authority .

Bafnage, vol. iii. p. 468, + Ib. 475.

1 Ib. p. 489.

Se

So much were the Roman catholics chagrined at the advantage which Luther, and the other reformers, derived from the fcriptures, that, on fome occafions they spoke of them with so much indignation and difrefpect, as is inconfiftent with the belief of their authority, and of chriftianity itfelf. Prieras, mafter of the facred palace, writing against Luther advances thefe two propofitions, viz. that the fcriptures derive all their authority from the church and the pope, and that indulgences, being established by the church and the pope, have a greater authority than the fcriptures. "How do we know," say some of these writers, "that the books which bear the name of Mofes "are his, fince we have not the originals, and if "we had them, there is no perfon who knows "the hand-writing of Mofes? Befides, how do "we know that all that Mofes has faid is true? "Were the evangelifts witneffes of all that they "write? And if they were, might not they be « defective in memory, or even impose upon us? Every man is capable of deceiving, and being « deceived *.”

All the popes, however, have not fhewn the fame dread of the fcriptures. For Sixtus V. caused an Italian tranflation of the bible to be published, though the zealous catholics were much offended at itt.

Basnage, vol. iii. p. 455, &c. † Hift. des Papes, vol. v. p. 80.

So

So much were the minds of all men oppreffed with a reverence for antiquity, and the traditions of the church, at the time of the reformation, that the protestants were not a little embarrassed by it in their controverfy with the catholics; many of the errors and abuses of popery being discovered in the earliest chriftian writers, after the apoftolical age. But at prefent all proteftants feem to entertain a juft opinion of fuch authority, and to think with Chillingworth, that the bible alone is the religion of proteftants. We may, however, be very much embarraffed by entertaining even this opinion in its greatest rigour, as I have fhewn in the introduction to this Appendix.

THE

HISTORY

OF THE

Corruptions of Chriftianity.

PART XII.

The Hiftory of the MONASTIC LIFE.

THE INTRODUCTION:

BESIDES thofe ministers of the chrif

tian church whose titles we meet with in the New Teftament, but whofe powers and prerogatives have been prodigiously increased from that time to the present, we find that, excepting the popes alone, no lefs confpicuous a figure was made by other orders of men, of whom there is not fo much as the least mention in the books of fcripture, or the writings of the (apoftolical age. I mean the monks, and religious orders of a fimilar constitution, which have more or less of a religious character.

The fet of opinions which laid the foundation for the whole business of monkery, came origi

VOL. II.

Сс

nally

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