SECT. IX.

THE PAULICIANS.

I. Their history. II. Their testimony to the scriptures.

1. I TAKE this opportunity to give a brief account of the Paulicians, who were mentioned before, and are usually reckoned a branch of the Manichees. But Beausobre says that though they are sometimes confounded with the Manichees, they agreed but little with them. And indeed Peter of Sicily intimates that they did not own themselves to be Manichees.

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They are generally supposed to have first appeared in the seventh century, in the country of Armenia, and to have been so called from Paul, son of Callinice, a Manichæan woman, who had another son named John, who also was a zealous preacher of this doctrine, called revived Manichæism.

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Photius says they hold two principles, as the Manichees do; he calls Mani their master: he continually considers their sect as a branch of Manichæism.

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I formerly mentioned a particularity of theirs. Photius likewise says that they did not chuse to have their ministers called priests, but scribes or secretaries, or "companions in travel," the word used in Acts xix. 29, and 2 Cor. viii. 19.

II. I now proceed to observe their testimony to the scriptures.

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1. Photius says they reject the holy prophets and all the Old Testament, and the ancient saints in general, calling them thieves and robbers.

2. As for the scriptures of the New Testament,' Photius says, they receive the gospel, and the apostle [meaning the gospels and the epistles of the apostle Paul at least,] which the • Christian church receives and honours, and has delivered to them. These they receive without altering or corrupting them in any material things, as Valentinus and some others have done. But they pervert them from their true meaning to support their apostasy.'

3. Afterwards, having quoted 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16, and having applied to them what St. Peter says of some who wrested the scriptures to their own destruction, he says: As" for the oracles "of the Lord and the apostles, and the other scriptures, (by which last I mean the Acts of the apostles, and the epistles called catholic,) excepting those of the chief apostle, they receive them: for those ascribed to him they do not receive at all. And concerning the Acts of the apostles, and the catholic epistles, they are not all of the same opinion: for some reject them, whilst others join them with the other scriptures received by all.'

4. Photius does also elsewhere expressly say they rejected Peter, because he denied his

• See P. 158. b B. T. 2, p. 765.

• Qui tametsi se a Manichæorum impuritatibus alienos dico titant, sunt tamen dogmatum ipsorum vigilantissimi custodes et propugnatores. Pet. Sic. ap. Bib. P. P. Max. T. 16, p. 754, B.

* Εν ταύτη γυνη τις, ονόματι Καλλινικη δυο τίκτει παιδας, -Εκ πατερα τοινυν των ειρημένων, ὅτῳ Παυλος ὴν ονομα-Παυλικιανων κλησιν οἱ της αποςασίας εραςαι μετελ λatarro. Ph. contr. Manich. 1. i. c. 2, p. 4, 5. Vid. et Petr. Sic. ib. p. 759, A.

• Δύο μεν αρχας όμολογεσιν, ὡς οἱ Μανιχαιοι Phot. ib. l. i. c. 6, in.

* Και τοιγε το διδασκαλε αυτων Μανεντος, κ. λ. ib. c. 8.

P. 24.

3 αἱ το Μανέντος παραφυάδες ib. 1. 4. c. 1. in. et passim. See p. 158.

1 Τις μεντοι παρ' αυτοις ἱερεων ταξιν επέχοντας εκ ἱερεις, άλλα συνεκδημες και νοταριες επονομάζεσι. 1. i. c. 9, p. 31. Conf. c. 25, p. 134, et Wolf. not. in. loc.

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Lord and Master. Mr. Wolff therefore says, that perhaps these are the only Christians that ever rejected both of St. Peter's epistles.

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5. In another place, they admit, as the rule of their faith, the oracles of the Lord, and the • epistles of the great apostle Paul, and some of them the Acts of the apostles, and the catholic epistles, except those of the chief apostle.'

6. Again, they endeavour to confirm their doctrines by the scriptures of the gospel, and the divine apostle Paul.'

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7. He quotes to them the divine Luke in the Acts, though, as he adds, many of the sect do not receive that book.

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8. He quotes to them expressly Paul's epistle to the Hebrews, or Jews, as his word is. 9. What regard the Paulicians had for the book of the Revelation I cannot particularly say; Photius not quoting it in his argument with them. f

10. I add one thing more. These people greatly respected the scriptures of the New Testament, and approved that all people, the laity, and even women, should read, study, and under stand them. This appears from a story told by Photius, of a conversation between a Manichæan woman and Sergius, who afterwards became a zealous promoter of the sect.

11. I have almost entirely confined myself to Photius, not thinking it needful to be more particular at present, or to copy much from Peter, or any other author, concerning so late a sect. However I shall briefly observe, that Peter of Sicily in the main agrees with Photius, often saying that the Paulicians rejected the Old Testament, and used only the gospels and the apostle. In particular, he says: They receive the four gospels, and the fourteen epistles of Paul, and the catholic epistle of James, and the three epistles of John, and the catholic epistle of Jude, and the Acts of the apostles, without making any alterations in them. But they admit not the two epistles of the chief of the apostles.'

12. Upon the whole, the Paulicians, according to these accounts, received the books of the New Testament as they were received by other Christians, excepting the two epistles of Peter, which they entirely rejected, if these authors say right. But what was their sentiment concerning the Revelation we cannot say.

• Τῷ σωτηρι γαρ ήμων ὁ Παυλος προς Ιεδαίες γραφων, την πατρικὴν άρμοζει φονην, κ. λ. 1, 2, c. x. p. 185.

* Η προειρημενη Μανιχαία γυνή, ήνικα το πρώτον εις όμιλίαν αυτῷ κατέςη, ίνα τι, φησιν, ειπέ μοι, τα θεια εκ αναγινωσκεις ευαγγελια; Ο δε - μη εξείναι φήσας την των λαϊκων πληρεντι ταξιν ανέδην έτως την των φρικτών λόγιων ποιείσθαι αναγνωσιν, ανεισθαι γαρ τοις ἱερευσιν το έργον. 1. i. c. 20, p. 100.

8 Quod veteris instrumenti tabulas non admittant, prophetasque planos et latrones appellent, -aut sola duntaxat sacra quatuor evangelia, et S. Pauli Apostoli denas quaternas epistolas recipiant, Jacobi item Catholicam, ternas Joannis, Catho licam Judæ, cum Actis Apostolorum, iisdemn quibus apud nos sunt verbis. Binas Catholicas magni et inmobilis ecclesiæ fundamenti,principis apostolorum, non admittunt. Petr. ubi supr. p. 756, E.

REMARKS

UPON

MR. BOWER'S ACCOUNT OF THE MANICHEES,

IN THE SECOND VOLUME OF HIS HISTORY OF THE POPES.

NONE of my learned friends, who have read Mr. Bower's History of the Popes,- (and I suppose they have all read it,) could forbear observing the difference between his account of the Manichees, and that given in the sixth volume of the first edition of this work. And some of them have intimated that I could not decline taking public notice of it, unless I would be understood to allow that the account given by me of the same people was wrong; for which I see no reason. Indeed I cannot but wish that Mr. Bower had read that volume, or the late Mr. Beausobre's History of the Manichees, from which I received a great deal of light; I think he would then have expressed himself very differently from what he has done: as it is, I think myself obliged to make a few remarks.

In the history of Manes, or Mani (as the Persians his countrymen call him,) which is at the beginning of note (D) p. 19, 20, of Mr. Bower's second volume, there are, in my opinion, several mistakes; as may appear from the account given of Mani, and his works, and predecessors, in the forementioned volume: to which they are referred who please to look into it.

In the latter part of the same note, p. 21, 22, Mr. Bower proceeds to the tenets of this sect, which I considered formerly, so far as I judged needful. I therefore take notice of a very few things only in Mr. Bower upon this article.

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In that note, p. 21, says Mr. Bower: Thus was gluttony with them a cardinal virtue, and eating to excess highly meritorious.' I do not conceive how that can be truly said of the Manichees, when their elect, the most distinguished part of them, comprehending their ecclesiastics, and some others, were obliged to abstain from meat, and wine, and eggs, and fish. And Mr. Bower says, p. 23, that their auditors, as well as their elect, kept two fasts in the week, the one on Sunday, the other on Monday.' That the Manichees were great fasters was shewn p. 160: that they were by principle, and frequent practice, a temperate, abstemious sort of people, appears, I think, from a passage which I have not yet alleged at all. It is near the conclusion of a work generally ascribed to Marius Victorinus Afer, in the fourth century; which is a letter to Justin, a Manichee, a learned man, and the author's friend. In vain,' says he, do you now macerate your body, and mortify it with continual fasting and watching; if, after all, it has no other lot than to return to the devil, who, you say, is its creator. But, undoubtedly, Mr. Bower has some reason for saying what he does, which therefore ought to be considered. The particles of the good nature were, according to them, in all beings of this universe, mixed, and chained to, the particles of the evil nature. Such, however, as happened to be in the food which they used, were, in being used by them, delivered for ever from so painful a bondage. Thus was gluttony with them a cardinal virtue, and eating to 'excess highly meritorious:' p. 21, note (D). This therefore is only a consequence deduced from the just mentioned supposed principle of theirs. But it does not appear that they discerned this consequence; for, so far as we can find, they did not, by principle, eat to excess: but were, and upon principle, great fasters and very abstemious. Augustine imputes to them the same principle, whether justly or not. I do not now inquire. Nevertheless he does not upon that account charge them with excess in eating; because I suppose he knew they were not guilty of

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a Et cassum nunc usque jugi inediâ, inimicæ, ut ais, carnis membra tenuâsti, censens ipse animæ officere meritis, ac naturæ passi corporis succos, ac pinguedinis distentæ grassamina atque ipsorum abdominum mole prægravari: si post

hunc jejuniorum laborem ad creatorem tuum, quem ais, aut diabolum, aut exteriores tenebras reverteris. T. M. Victorin. adv. Manich. Ap. B. PP. Lugd. T. 4, p. 292, D. E.

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it. But he ridicules their fasting: Your fasting,' says he, is cruel; you ought to be always eating; whilst you cease to eat, you forbear to deliver the particles of the good nature from

'their chains.'

Farther, p. 21: They rejected the Old Testament, and some parts of the New, especially the Acts of the apostles.' That the Manichees rejected the Old Testament is undoubted; whether they rejected any books of the New Testament, and particularly the Acts of the apostles, has been carefully examined p. 212-217.

In the latter part of that note, p. 23, Mr. Bower gives a shocking account of their eucharist, taken from ancient ecclesiastical writers. And afterwards, at p. 25, he tells the same, or like story from pope Leo, commonly called the great: this was also examined. See particularly my reference to Beausobre, with his arguments and observations, p. 408; in which, if I am not mistaken, there is a sufficient vindication of the Manichees from the charge of lewd and abominable rites and mysteries.

Nevertheless, as I did not then distinctly speak of Pope Leo, upon whom Mr. Bower chiefly insists, I shall now consider what is alleged from him. He spared no pains,' says Mr. B. p. 25. to find them out; and being informed by some, whom they had attempted to seduce, where they assembled, he caused great numbers of them to be seized, in virtue of the imperial edicts, and among the rest their bishop, and some of their teachers. Having them thus in his power, his first care was to learn of them their true tenets, and the secret practices of their sect; which ⚫ he had no sooner done, than he assembled the neighbouring bishops, and those who happened to be then at Rome, with a great number of presbyters; inviting to the assembly even the laymen of any rank, the great officers of the empire, and the senate......Being all met and in 'great expectation, Leo ordered the elect of the Manichees, that is, their teachers and chief ⚫ men among them to be brought forth. Great was their confusion when they appeared before so grand an assembly; but being encouraged by Leo, they first owned their impious tenets, and their superstitious practices, and discovered a crime, which modesty,' says pope Leo, would not allow him to name: but, it was so fully proved,' adds he that the most incredulous were ❝ thoroughly satisfied it was true, for all those who were concerned in that abominable act were present: viz. a girl of twelve years old, the two women who had brought her up, and prepared her for the crime, the youth who had debauched her, and the bishop who presided at that detestable ceremony, and had directed it......It appeared from the confession which their bishop made openly, and gave in writing, that they committed these abominations chiefly on their ⚫ festivals.' I think it may be worth our while to see pope Leo's own words; which therefore I transcribe below.

With regard then to pope Leo I would observe, first, that we have not remaining any copy of the proceedings against these people to which Leo refers. Secondly, though the confessions mentioned by Leo seem a specious argument for the truth of these charges, yet I apprehend that, when duly weighed, they are of little value. By menaces, and promises, and good management, an artful and powerful ecclesiastic, like Leo, is able to obtain such confessions as he wants, whenever there are any people, who have fallen under his displeasure, and he has determined to harass them with fines, or imprisonment, or banishment. Says Athenagoras, in his Apology for the Christians of his time, that our enemies may seem not to hate us without reason, they

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Nec ipsa jejunia vobis competunt. Non enim oportet vacare fornacem, in quâ spiritale aurum de stercoris commixtione purgatur, et a miserandis nexibus divina membra solvuntur. Quapropter ille est misericordior inter vos, qui se potuerit ita exercere, ut nihil ejus valetudini obsit, sæpe crudos cibos sumere, et multa consumere. Vos autem. . . . . a membrorum divinorum purgatione cessando crudeliter jejunatis. Contr. Faust. 1. 6, c. 4, T. 8.

De sacris tamen eorum, quæ apud illos tam obscœna sunt, quam nefanda, quod inquisitioni nostræ Dominus manifestare voluit, non tacemus, ne quisquam putet nos de hac re dubiæ famæ et incertis opinionibus credidisse. Residentibus itaque mecum Episcopis et Presbyteris, ac in eumdem confessum Christianis viris ac nobilibus congregatis, Electos et Electas eorum jussimus præsentari. Qui cum et perversitate dogmatis sui, et de festivitatum, suarum consuetudine multa reserarent, illud quoque scelus, quod eloqui verecundum

VOL. II.

est, prodiderunt; quod tantâ diligentiâ investigatum est, ut nihil minus credulis, nihil obtrectatoribus, relinquerefur ambiguum. Aderant enim omnes personæ, per quos infandum facinus fuerat perpetratum, puerula scilicet ut multum decennis, et duæ mulieres quæ ipsam nutrierant, et huic sceleri præparaverant. Præsto erat etiam adolescentulus vitiator puellæ, et episcopus ipsorum detestandi criminis ordinator. Omninum par fuit horum et una confessio, et patefactum est exsecratum, quod aures nostræ vix ferre potuerunt. De quo ne apertius loquentes, castos offendamus auditus, gestorum documenta sufficiunt.....Leon. Serm. 15. c. 4, p. 64. edit. Lugd. 1700. Conf. Ep. 15, al. 93, c. 16, p. 230, 231. et Ep.

8. al. 2.

• Ετι δε και iva TE MOS τε μισειν P. 34, D.

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τροφας και μίξεις λογοποιεσιν αθεες καθ' ἡμων, TOMIZED META λoye. x. A. Legat. pro. Chr. νομίζοιεν μετα λογο.

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accuse us of abominable feasts, and incestuous mixtures in our assemblies. It has been the way of all persecutors in general. They will make those appear criminal whom they intend to destroy, and will do their utmost to expose them to general scorn and aversion. Thirdly, after all these examinations and confessions, Leo did not know when this abominable rite, with which he charged them, was performed. First he says, 'in their worship: de sacris tamen eorum,' &c. then in their festivals: de festivitatum eorum consuetudine.' In another place it is in their 'mysteries.' Once more, in the principal feast of their sect.' in the principal feast of their sect.' If good evidence of this fact had been produced, he would have expressed himself more clearly and uniformly. As pope Leo says that this was done in the principal feast of their sect,' Beausobre understood him to mean their Bema, an annual festival, celebrated in honour of Mani with great solemnity. Which,' he says, affords a manifest proof of the falsehood of the deposition of the witnesses before Leo: for that feast was not profaned with any sacrifices of unchastity. Augustine, who, ' when a Manichee, was present at it, has described it, and discerned nothing impure in it.' Fourthly, it appears from pope Leo, that the Manichees celebrated the eucharist in the like manner with other Christians: for he has informed us that the better to conceal themselves, and avoid the sufferings which by law they were exposed to, they would come to church and ⚫ communicate with the catholics; when they partook of the bread, but refused the cup.' The reason is manifest: according to the Manichæan rule, the elect, who alone had a right to com→ municate at the Lord's table, were forbidden wine, which was used by the catholics. If, instead of wine, water had been proposed to them, or some other liquor not prohibited, they would have received it. I think that what Leo says teaches us two things. The first of which is, that the Manichees observed the eucharist in the same manner with the catholics, except that they used some other liquor instead of wine. And certainly the testimony of Leo in this point is very remarkable. The other thing which we learn from hence is, that the Manichees were scrupulous and conscientious men. Who can believe that they who refused to taste wine, though it were to secure themselves from heavy sufferings, admitted into their religious rites abominable filthiness, which no reasonable creature can bear to think of? Fifthly, the Manichees at Rome, in the time of pope Leo, were a sober and modest people. For he found himself obliged frequently to caution his own people and hearers against being seduced by their fastings, abstinence from <certain meats, mean dress, pale countenances,' and other marks of a scber and abstemious course of life. Which is agreeable to Augustine, who says, that by an appearance of chastity and temperance they ensnared many people.' Sixthly, pope Leo's abusive manner of speaking of the Manichees invalidates all his accusations against them. For he says, they were the 'worst of all heretics, who had nothing in them that was tolerable: whose law is a lie, whose ' religion is the devil, and whose sacrifice is filthiness and the like.' Is any regard to be had to a man who talks at that rate? He who should take his notion of the Manichæan worship from pope Leo, I believe, would suffer himself to be grossly imposed upon. It might be better to take it from Faustus, one of their own bishops, as cited in Augustine, and also in this volume at p. 205. I must now return to the note before cited at p. 590. The great and chief mystery of their

a In exsecrabilibus autem mysteriis eorum. Ep. 15, al. 23, c. 16,

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P. 230. -in ipso præcipuo observantiæ suæ festo, sicut proximå confessione patefactum est, ut animi, ita et corporis pollutione lætantur. Serm. 23, c. 4, p. 76, al. Serm. 4, De Nativitate Domini. c Hist. de Manich. T. 2, p. 754. dA brief account of that festival may be seen p. 142, and-207,

* Cumque ad tegendam infidelitatem suam nostris audeant interesse mysteriis, ita in sacramentorum communione se temperant, ut interdum, ne penitus latere non possint, ore indigno Christi corpus accipiant, sanguinem autem redemtionis nostræ haurire omnino declinent. Serm. 41, c. 5, p. 106, al. de Quadragessima. iv.

Neminem fallant discretionibus ciborum, sordibus vestium, vultuumque palloribus. Non sunt casta jejunia, quæ non de ratione veniunt continentiæ, sed de arte fallaciæ. Serm. 33, p. 93.

C. V.

Non vos seducant deceptoriis artibus ficta et simulata jeju

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nia, quæ non ad purificationem proficiunt animarum. Speciem quidem sibi pietatis et castitatis assumunt, sed hoc dolo actuum suorum obscœna circumtegunt, &c. Serm. 23. c. 6, p. 76.

Duæ maxime sunt illecebræ Manichæorum, quibus deci-, piuntur incauti-altera, cum vitæ castæ, et memorabilis continentiæ, imaginem præferunt. De Mor. Cath. Ec. 1. 1, c. 1, T. 1. quibus plenissime docetur, nullam in hac sectâ pudicitiam, nullam honestatem, nullam penitus reperiri castitatem: in quâ lex est mendacium, diabolus religio, sacrificium turpitudo. Serm. 15. c. 4. p. 64.

Aliæ hæreses dilectissimi, licet merito omnes in suâ perversitate damnandæ sint, habent tamen singulæ in aliquâ sui parte quod verum est.- -In Manichæorum autem scelestissimo dogmate prorsus nihil est, quod ex ullâ parte possit tolerabile judicari. Serm. 23. c. 5, p. 76, al. De Nativitate Domini. iv.

i Contr. Faust. 1. 20, c. 3. T. 8.