for that God had many other sons. They taught that Christ assumed our human nature, was born and suffered merely in appearance; that every human soul is a portion of the Divine substance, and pre-exists the state to which it is condemned in the body: that the devil, or author of evil, was not created by Almighty God, but sprang from darkness and the chaos, and is evil by his own nature. Marriages they condemned and dissolved, and in lieu of matrimony authorised obscenities; qualifying their adultresses and harlots with the soft epithet of adoptive sisters. They did not reject the Old Testament, but explained it allegorically. To the books of the New Testament they added false acts-of St Thomas, St Andrew, and St John; and two most blasphemous books, the one written by Priscillian, called Memoria Apostolorum; the other called Libra, or the Pound, because it consisted of twelve questions or blasphemies. This book they ascribed to one Dictinius. To conceal their doctrine, they were ready, if necessary, to abjure even Priscillian himself-together with their own tenets, as we are assured by St Augustine. (Ep. 237, n. 3, &c. See also St Leo's Letter to Turibius, 15. ed. Quesnell, p. 93. The first council of Toledo, Conc. T. 2, p. 228; the council of Braga, in 563, T. 5, p. 36. &c.)

Two bishops named Instantius and Salvianus were seduced by Priscillian; Higinus of Cordova their neighbour at first opposed, but afterwards joined them. The two former, with Elpidius and Priscillian laymen, were condemned in the council of Saragossa--subscribed by twelve bishops in 381. The execution of the sentence was committed to Ithacius bishop of Ossobona (formerly an episcopal see in Lusitania, now called Estombar in Algarves) who was ordered by the council to excommunicate Higinus also. Ithacius is much commended by some writers for his eloquence; but is charged by Sulpicius Severus with the odious vices of gluttony, adulation, haughtiness and revenge. Instantius and Salvian, after their condemnation, proceeded to ordain Priscillian bishop of Avila. Ithacius and Idacius his colleague, exasperated the sect by the violence of their proceedings; and, through their procurement, the emperor Gratian issued an order for the banishment of the Priscillianists. Instantius, Sal

vian and Priscillian applied to pope Damasus for redress, and perverted many in Aqutiain on their way to Rome; particularly one Euchrocia, wife of Delphidius a famous poet and orator, and her daughter Procula, whom Priscillian is said to have debauched. Pope Damasus refused to see them, and Salvian dying at Rome, the other two repaired to Milan, and were rejected in like manner by St Ambrose. But they found means by dint of bribery and court intrigue to obtain of Gratian their re-establishment in their episcopal sees. Ithacius remained at Triers till Maximus became master of Spain; who listened to his complaints, and

caused Instantius and Priscillian to appear before a council at Bourdeaux. Instantius was condemned; but Priscillian appealed to Maximus; and they were both sent to him at Triers by the connivance of the synod. Doubtless, they were afraid of offending this new master should they have rejected the undue appeal. Maximus committed the cause of the Priscillianists to Evodius, whom he had made prefect of the prætorium. This severe judge convicted Priscillian of several crimes by his own confession; among others, for instance, of holding nocturnal assemblies with lewd women; of praying naked, and other such scandalous immoralities. Ithacius was the accuser, and was even present when Priscillian was put to the torture: though after this he withdrew, and did not assist at their condemnation to death. Evodius laid the whole proceeding before Maximus, who declared Priscillian and his accomplices worthy of death. The sentence was accordingly pronounced; and Priscillian, his two clerks named Felicissimus and Armenius, Latrocinius a layman, and the adulteress Euchrocia, lost their heads; and many others were variously punished for the same cause. Ithacius and his associate bishops were patronised by the emperor; so that several who highly disapproved their conduct, durst not openly condem them. However, neither St Ambrose nor St Martin would communicate with Ithacius, or those bishops who held communion with him. Nor can we be surprised at this refusal-when we consider how much the church abhors the shedding of the blood-even of criminals, and never suffers any of her clergy to be party in such cases.

After the defeat of Maximus by Theodosius in 338 or 339, Ithacius was brought to a trial, and having been convicted of seditious and irregular behaviour, he closed his life in exile, and under the severest censures of the church. The wretched Priscillian and his fellow miscreants were honored by their deluded followers in Spain as martyrs; and their bones were conveyed thither, as so many precious relics. The sect was repressed by the severe laws of Honorius in 407 and 408, and by the zeal of the holy pope St Leo, and of St Turibius, bishop of Astorga in 447; and quite annihilated in Spain by the invasion of the Moors, (see Tillemont, Orsi, &c.) although they still subsisted in some other parts of Christendom; as is evident from a council held against them at Prague in the sixth century. (Collect. Conc.) See the Life of St Martin of Tours by the learned Alban Butler, T. 11, p. 215, &c. ;—the article MANICHEES, &c.

PROCLIANS-Were Montanists who received their name from a certain Proclus, a leading man of that sect: see the article.

PRODIANITES otherwise HERMIANS: see that article.

PTOLOMEANS the followers of Ptolomy a disciple of Valentinus, who maintained with him the doctrine of a Being sovereignly perfect; but rejected his system of the origin of the world and of the Jewish dispensation. He taught, that the Jewish, and the evangelical law, were derived from the good Principle, and not the work of two hostile divinities; and that the world was not the production of the Supreme Being; otherwise, in his ideas, there could have been no evil. Hence he concluded, that the Creator was a good Principle residing in the centre of the universe, which he had created, and in which he produced all possible good; but that in this same world there existed also, an unjust and evil Principle which was united to matter, and was the author of evil. It was to prevent the consequences of His inbred malice, that the Creator had sent down amongst us his divine Son. But this wise reasoner has not thought fit to let us know-how his supposed evil Principle which had not from itself an independent existence, came into existence at all, if all things received their being from one Principle sovereignly perfect!

PROTESTANTS-a name first given to the adherents of Luther, because in the year 1529 they protested against a decree of the emperor and the diet of Spire, and appealed to a general council. At their head appeared six princes of the empire, namely: John, elector of Saxony; George, elector of Brandenbourg; Ernest and Francis, dukes of Lunenbourgh; Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and the prince of Anhalt. They were seconded by thirteen imperial cities. This league, however, was formed rather with a view to set bounds to the authority of the emperor, than in opposition to the catholic religion. The appellation of protestants was likewise given to the disciples of Calvin in France, and was extended to the various branches of the reformed, whether Lutherans or Calvinists;-the Church-of-England-men, or the numerous sects into which they have since divided. We have spoken of each under their respective articles; we will here examine their general claim to orthodoxy.

If they be asked-where was their religion before Luther and Calvin were in being, they will answer-in the Bible. It must then have lain there very close and snug; since for fifteen slowrevolving centuries none had ever discovered it, before these sagacious gentlemen dragged it into light. You are much deceived, they will exclaim: the Manichees, like ourselves, discovered in scripture the idolatry of paying religious honors to the martyrs; Vigilantius, the abuse of venerating their relics; Aerius, that of praying for the dead; Jovinian, the superstition of vowing a state of virginity. Berengarius, as well as ourselves, saw clearly in the gospel, that the dogma of transubstantiation was absurd; the Albigenses, that the pretended sacra

ments of the church of Rome, were but empty ceremonies; the Valdenses and others-that priests and bishops differ not in authority or character, from simple laics, &c. Consequently, we can prove our belief to have been always professed, either in the whole, or at least in part, by some or other society of christians; and that it is wrongfully accused of innovation.

Behold here a tradition with a witness-the most pure and respectable that ever was adduced! Ever to be sought for without the pale of the church, it has for its guarantees none but sectaries anathematized for their impious tenets. But why not grace the honourable pedigree with the additional suffrage of the Gnostics, the Marcionites, the Arians, the Nestorians, the Pelagians, Eutychians, and the Lord knows how many other equally creditable progenitors? All alike have seen in holy scripture their errors and their absurdities; they maintained as well as protestants, that this Divine book was a sufficient rule of faith. But by what peculiar evidence are protestants convinced, that themselves recognise in holy writ more certainly than all these eminent theologists of old, those articles of belief in which they think proper to dissent from them? To point out pretended witnesses of the truth, and never fully to agree with their testimony; to adopt their sentiments on some particular point, and reject them in every other instance, is not the way to add much weight to their authority. A creed thus made up of patch-work, and of materials purloined from ancient heretics, a multitude of whom were no longer christians, nor worshippers of Jesus Christ, can bear but a very scanty resemblance with the doctrine of that Divine master.

If the Bible in fact contained-all the errors which fanatics of every age have pretended to deduce from it, it would be the most pernicious book in existence: nor would the Deists, on this supposition, be wrong in affirming it to be a bone of contention, destined to set all mankind at variance. However, as protestants will have the privilege of giving it what sense they please, they certainly should not refuse the same prerogative to other sects: hence all possible errors and heresies, evidently are justified by the protestant rule of faith-the private_interpretation of scripture. But, we should likewise wish to know-why the catholic church is not also allowed the privilege, in her turn, of discovering from holy scripture, that all who relinquish her communion, pervert the sense of that Divine book, which itself was entrusted to her exclusive charge by the apostles her original founders? St Peter admonishes us, that the sense of scripture may be perverted by the ignorant and unstable, to their own destruction, ep. 2, c. 3, 16; and how does this stand with the protestant maxim, that all are capable of interpreting it for themselves? Tertullian informs all sectaries, that scripture is the exclusive property of the true church, to which aliens can

have no just pretensions. (Præscrip. c. 37.) It concerns the protestants to prove, that this exclusion does not affect themselves.

PUCCIANITES- -are those who adhere to the doctrine of one Puccius, who pretended that Jesus Christ, by his death, had satisfied in such manner for all mankind, that whoever should have a natural knowledge of God, although they had no faith in Jesus Christ, would be saved. This doctrine he maintained in a treatise which he dedicated to pope Clement VIII. in the year 1592— with the following title: De Christi Salvatoris efficacitate in omnibus et singulis hominibus, quatenus homines sunt, assertio Catholica æquitatis Divinæ et humanæ consentanea, universæ Scripturæ S. et PP. consensu, spiritu discretionis probata, adversus scholas asserentes quidem sufficientiam Servatoris Christi, sed negantes ejus salutarem efficaciam in singulis, ad summum Pontificem Clementem Octavum. (Stockman. Lexic. Puccianiste.)

Rhetorius in the fourth age had held nearly the same opinion, and Zuinglius in the fifteenth. It may, very possibly, be an error of the heart; but it is formally opposed to the words of Jesus Christ himself, who says, that no man cometh to the Father but through Him, (John xiv. 6.) and again,-I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me... and for them also, who through their word shall believe in me, (c. xvii. 9, 20.)

PURITANS were a sect of rigid Calvinists in England, who affected to aspire after greater perfection, than they acknowledged to be attainable in the church established by queen Elizabeth; and quarrelled with the popish ceremonies, episcopacy, and other rites, still retained to the intolerable scandal of these more precise and pharisaical gospellers. The contest between them and the established church terminated in the eventual subversion of the existing government, and of the throne itself-by the murder of their lawful sovereign Charles I. They had begun early to divide into various classes-of Brownists; Separatists; Robinsonians, and the numerous sects of Independents. Even the most ignorant, and the very dregs of the populace became preachers, as is now the case among Methodists and Quakers; and the gaping mob was all credulity and attention. The pulpits every where were filled with what the parliament termed "a godly, faithful, painful, gospel-preaching ministry," who railed against the alleged malignancy, treachery, barbarity, superstition, popery and idolatry of their predecessors in office, with as little decency or regard for truth, as the catholics had before experienced in the common anniversary discourses on the fifth of November. They did not, however, long retain their power; for Cromwell growing tired of their yoke, put himself at the head of those, who were for a more perfect equality and inde