of Cyril would have purchased its overthrow with guards, were deposited in the forum of Constantine, a bribe of two thousand pounds of gold.

the principal station and camp of the faithful. In the fever of the times, the sense, Day and night they were incessantly busied either The Trisagion, and religious war, or rather the sound, of a syllable, was in singing hymns to the honour of their God, or in till the death of Anastasius, sufficient to disturb the peace of an em- pillaging and murdering the servants of their prince. A. D. 508-518. pire. The TRISAGION, (thrice holy,) The head of his favourite monk, the friend, as they "Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts!" is sup- styled him, of the enemy of the Holy Trinity, was posed, by the Greeks, to be the identical hymn borne aloft on a spear; and the fire-brands, which which the angels and cherubim eternally repeat be- had been darted against heretical structures, diffore the throne of God, and which, about the middle fused the undistinguishing flames over the most of the fifth century, was miraculously revealed to orthodox buildings. The statues of the emperor the church of Constantinople. The devotion of were broken, and his person was concealed in a Antioch soon added, "who was crucified for us!" | suburb, till, at the end of three days, he dared to and this grateful address, either to Christ alone, or implore the mercy of his subjects. Without his to the whole Trinity, may be justified by the rules diadem, and in the posture of a suppliant, Anastaof theology, and has been gradually adopted by the sius appeared on the throne of the circus. The catholics of the east and west. But it had been catholics, before his face, rehearsed their genuine imagined by a monophysite bishop; the gift of an Trisagion; they exulted in the offer which he proenemy was at first rejected as a dire and dangerous claimed by the voice of a herald, of abdicating the blasphemy, and the rash innovation had nearly cost purple; they listened to the admonition, that, since the emperor Anastasius his throne and his life. all could not reign, they should previously agree in The people of Constantinople were devoid of any the choice of a sovereign; and they accepted the rational principles of freedom; but they held, as a blood of two unpopular ministers, whom their lawful cause of rebellion, the colour of a livery in master, without hesitation, condemned to the lions. the races, or the colour of a mystery in the schools. These furious but transient seditions were encouThe Trisagion, with and without this obnoxious raged by the success of Vitalian, who, with an army addition, was chanted in the cathedral by two of Huns and Bulgarians, for the most part idolaters, adverse choirs, and when their lungs were ex- declared himself the champion of the catholic faith. hausted, they had recourse to the more solid argu- In this pious rebellion he depopulated Thrace, bements of sticks and stones: the aggressors were sieged Constantinople, exterminated sixty-five thoupunished by the emperor, and defended by the sand of his fellow-christians, till he obtained the patriarch; and the crown and mitre were staked on recall of the bishops, the satisfaction of the pope, the event of this momentous quarrel. The streets and the establishment of the council of Chalcedon, were instantly crowded with innumerable swarms an orthodox treaty, reluctantly signed by the dying of men, women, and children; the legions of monks, Anastasius, and more faithfully performed by the in regular array, marched, and shouted, and fought at their head, "Christians! this is the day of martyrdom let us not desert our spiritual father; anathema to the Manichæan tyrant! he is unworthy to reign." Such was the catholic cry; and the galleys of Anastasius lay upon their oars before the palace, till the patriarch had pardoned his penitent, and hushed the waves of the troubled multitude. The triumph of Macedonius was checked by a speedy exile; but the zeal of his flock was again exasperated by the same question, "Whether one of the Trinity had been crucified?" On this momentous occasion, the blue and green factions of Constantinople suspended their discord, and the civil and military powers were annihilated in their presence. The keys of the city, and the standards of the

g Petavius, (Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v. 1. v. c. 2-4. p. 217-225.) and Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 713, &c. 799.) represent the history and doctrine of the Trisagion. In the twelve centuries between Isaiah and St. Proclus's boy, who was taken up into heaven before the bishop and people of Constantinople, the song was considerably improved. The boy heard the angels sing "Holy God! Holy strong! Holy immortal!"

h Peter Gnapheus, the fuller, (a trade which he had exercised in his monastery,) patriarch of Antioch. His tedious story is discussed in the Annals of Pagi, (A. D. 477–490.) and a dissertation of M. de Valois at the end of his Evagrius.

i The troubles under the reign of Anastasius must be gathered from the Chronicles of Victor, Marcellinus, and Theophanes. As the last was not published in the time of Baronius, his critic Pagi is more copious, as well as more correct.

k The general history, from the council of Chalcedon to the death

war, A. D. 514.

vernment of Jus A. D. 519-565.

uncle of Justinian. And such was the First religious
event of the first of the religious wars,
which have been waged in the name,
and by the disciples, of the God of peace.*
Justinian has been already seen in
Theological cha-
the various lights of a prince, a con- racter and go.
queror, and a lawgiver: the theologian' tinian,
still remains, and it affords an un-
favourable prejudice, that his theology should form
a very prominent feature of his portrait. The sove-
reign sympathized with his subjects in their super-
stitious 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,

of Anastasius, may be found in the Breviary of Liberatus, (c. 14—19.) the second and third books of Evagrius, the Abstract of the two books of Theodore the Reader, the Acts of the Synods, and the epistles of the Popes. (Concil. tom. v.) The series is continued with some disorder in the fifteenth and sixteenth tomes of the Memoires Ecclesiastiques of Tillemont. And here I must take leave for ever of that incomparable guide-whose bigotry is overbalanced by the merits of erudition, diligence, veracity, and scrupulous minuteness. He was prevented by death from completing, as he designed, the sixth century of the church and empire.

1 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 twelfth book-de tribus capitulis, "cum videri doctus appetit, importune spontaneis quæstionibus ecclesiam turbat." See Procop. de Bell. Goth. 1. iii. c. 35.

of Jews;

of Samaritans.

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. 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. 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 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," 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, 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

:

r 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.)

s 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.

For the religion and history of the Samaritans, consult Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, a learned and impartial work.

u Sichem, Neapolis, Naplons, 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. p. 59–63.

x Procop. Anecdot. c. 11. Theophan. Chron. p. 122. John Malala, Chron. tom. i. 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.

y The expression of Procopius is remarkable: ου γαρ οι εδοκει φόνος ανθρωπον είναι, ην γε μη της αυτού δόξης οι τελευτώντες τύχοιεν όντες. Anecdot. c. 13.

z See the Chronicle of Victor, p. 328. and the original evidence of the laws of Justinian. During the first years of his reign, Baronius him

laboured to establish with fire and sword the unity of the christian faith.y

His orthodoxy.

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. 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. The famous dispute of the THREE CHAPTERS, which has filled more volumes than it deserves lines, is deeply marked with this subtle and disingenuous spirit. It was now three hundred years since the body of Origen 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; and their justice or indulgence had restored both Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of Edessa, to the communion self is in extreme good humour with the emperor, who courted the popes, till he got them into his power.

C

The three chapters,

A. D. 532-608.

a Procopius, Anecdot. c. 13. Evagrius, 1. iv. c. 10. If the ecclesiastical never read the sacred historian, their common suspicion proves at least the general hatred.

b On the subject of the three chapters, the original acts of the fifth general council of Constantinople supply much useless, though au thentic, knowledge. (Concil. tom. vi. p. 1-419.) The Greek Evagrius is less copious and correct (1. iv. c. 38.) than the three zealous Africans, Facundus, (in his twelve books, de tribus capitulis, which are most correctly published by Simond,) Liberatus, (in his Breviarum, c. 22-24.) and Victor Tunnunensis in his Chronicle, (in tom. i. Antiq. Lect. Canisii, p. 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.

c Origen had indeed too great a propensity to imitate the λavn and duoreßeia of 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.

d Basnage (Præfat. 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.

tinian, A. D. 564.

chapters expired in an obscure angle of the Vene-
tian province. But the religious discontent of the
Italians had already promoted the conquests of the
Lombards, and the Romans themselves were accus-
tomed to suspect the faith, and to detest the govern-
ment, of their Byzantine tyrant.
Justinian was neither steady nor Heresy of Jus-
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 catho-
lics, were scandalized by his declaration, that the
body of Christ was incorruptible, and that his man-
hood was never subject to any wants and infirmities,
the inheritance of our mortal flesh. This phantastic
opinion was announced in the last edicts of Justi-
nian; and at the moment of his seasonable depar-
ture, the clergy had refused to transcribe, the prince
was prepared to persecute, and the people were re-
solved to suffer or resist. A bishop of Treves, secure
beyond the limits of his power, addressed the mo-
narch of the east in the language of authority and
affection. "Most gracious Justinian, remember
your baptism and your creed. Let not your grey
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 will deliver
your soul to the same flames in which they will
eternally burn." He died and made no sign. His
death restored in some degree the peace of the
church, and the reigns of his four successors, Jus-
tin, Tiberius, Maurice, and Phocas, are distinguished
by a rare, though fortunate, vacancy in the eccle-
siastical history of the east.h

of the church. But the characters of these oriental | in the period of a century, the schism of the three 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 honour 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 clamour, which after a hundred years was raised over their grave. If they were already in the fangs of the dæmon, 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 Vth general anathemas. The east, with some hesicouncil. Ild of tation, consented to the voice of her Constantinople, A. D. 553. sovereign: the fifth general council, of May 4-June 2. 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 honour 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; the distant barbarians transcribed the creed of the Vatican, and

e 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. 1. iv. c. 25.) v meр éveka opioiV AUTOIS οι Χριστιανοι διαμάχονται. He seems to promise an ecclesiastical history. It would have been curious and impartial.

f 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

A. D. 659.

The faculties of sense and reason The Monotheare least capable of acting on them- lite controversy, selves; 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

the fifth general council with contemptuous silence. (xiii. Concil. Toletan. in Concil. tom. vii. p. 487-494.)

g Nicetius, bishop of Treves: (Concil. tom. vi. p. 511–513.) he himself, like most of the Gallican prelates, (Gregor. Epist. 1. vii. ep. 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.)

h After relating the last heresy of Justinian, (Ì. iv. c. 39-41.) and the edict of his successor, (1. v. c. 3.) the remainder of the history of Eva. grius is filled with civil, instead of ecclesiastical, events.