name. This man divorced his lawful wife, and contracted an incestuous marriage with his daughter-in-law, notwithstanding the zealous remonstrances and ecclesiastic censures of the patriarch Ignatius. Him Bardas caused to be deposed, and intruded Photius in his place. The intruded prelate was excommunicated by the pope; and a schism ensued between the Greek and Latin churches, which was not terminated till the meeting of the eighth general council.

In this age Godescalcus raised long and warm debates concerning predestination; and a monk of Corby, from some passages in St Augustine, affected to infer, that all mankind collectively had but one individual soul. A priest of Mentz maintained with much zeal, that Cicero and Virgil were saved; and a visionary devotee pretended to discover in the Revelations, like some of the canting prophets of the present day, that the dissolution of the world would take place precisely in the year 848. Like them she thought she had received a commission from above to announce this grand discovery to mankind. She did so; and found many fools prepared to give her full credit for her prediction !

Tenth century.

The empire of the Mussulmans was now divided into a vast number of governments, over which the calif had no longer any absolute control. A croud of impostors had followed the example of Mahomet, and wished themselves to share with him a part of the national enthusiasm. The califs, who formerly went clad in the skins of beasts, and used the most simple diet, were grown luxurious and effeminate, and had a train of not less than forty thousand domestics. In the midst of this grand equipage, they oftentimes fell victims to the caprice of the soldiery, the treachery of favorites, or the ambition of competitors. Their prime ministers exercised all the functions of sovereignty, while the califs themselves were content with a sort of religious pre-eminence, and had no share in the government of the state.

Leo the philosopher reigned at Constantinople in the beginning of the tenth age. He was succeeded by his son Alexander, whose excesses quickly rid the empire of a most vicious prince. His nephew Constantine, Romanus compelled to take him for his colleague; and the son of Romanus dethroned his own father, and in his turn was himself dethroned, and forced to embrace an ecclesiastical state. Constantine recovered his authority, but was taken off by a most nefarious conspiracy of his own unnatural son Romanus, who at the suggestion of his not less wicked wife, administered a dose of poison to his royal father. This parricide did not long enjoy the fruits of his impiety. The army

proclaimed their general Nicephorus emperor; and he, too, was constrained to give place to Zimisces. The tranquillity of this prince's reign was disturbed by frequent conspiracies, and the rebellion of many provinces which the rapacious conduct of the eunuch Basil, chief minister of state, had driven into insurrection. Basil, dreading the justice of Zimisces, contrived his death by poison, and governed with despotic authority under the sons of Romanus, Constantine and Basil whom Zimisces had appointed to succeed him in the empire. Their reign, like the former, was troubled with revolt and civil war.

Italy, France and Germany were constantly engaged in foreign or domestic wars. In Italy, the different factions invited to their aid the neighbouring princes, and not unfrequently,barbarians; and, as their new guests oftentimes became troublesome, others were called in to expel them, and became in their turn also, equally untractable. In this turbulent state of things, John XII invited Otho into Italy, who extinguished the flames of discord among the natives,-wrested from the Greeks Apulia and Calabria, and reunited Italy to the Germanic empire. France was exposed to the incursions of the Normans, in whose favor Charles the Simple ceded a part of Neustria, which from them is still called Normandy. The disaffected nobles abandoned Charles, and placed Robert, son of Eudes, upon the throne: the two rivals formed confederacies with their neighbours. But, after the death of Robert, the states elected Raoul for their king; and Charles, now forsaken by all his adherents, died in duress at Peronne. After Raoul's demise, Hugues, Count of Paris and of Orleans, recalled Lewis son to Charles the Simple, who upon his father's disgrace had taken refuge in Great Britain. Lewis wished to check the overgrown influence of the barons, and with this view entered into league with the neighbouring powers. The nobles invited to their assistance the Bulgarians and the Normans; and France was left a prey to the fury of civil contention, when Lotharius succeeded to the crown. He was an enterprising and successful prince, but treacherous and faithless. He fell by poison in the midst of the tumults and disorders of the state. His son Lewis reigned nineteen years, and was succeeded by Hugues Capet the head of the Bourbon family. During the preceding reigns the vassals of the crown were become so powerful, that each noble had his fortresses and his castles, situated for the most part upon eminences, and overawing the surrounding plains. They even laid all travellers and merchants under contribution, and imposed upon them at pleasure arbitrary tolls by way of tribute, before they were permitted to cross any river; the fords of which they caused to be diligently guarded. Against these petty tyrants Hugues Capet waged a successful

war.

In Germany the order of things was much the same. The

great were always in arms one against the other, or else at war with their sovereigns. These latter, too, when unembarrassed at home with civil broils, became parties in the quarrels of their neighbours; so that Germany scarce enjoyed any intervals of peace. Nor was England more privileged than the nations of the continent; it was generally harassed by the inroads of the Danes, or implicated in domestic feuds.

Learning was still patronised in the East by the Saracen califs, and by the sultans who had usurped the greatest part of their authority. A considerable proportion of their learned men were employed in translating into the Arabic tongue the writings of the ancient philosophers; while others applied themselves with much diligence to the study of the translations already set forth in the preceding age. Some, again, gave comments on the works of Aristotle and other celebrated authors of antiquity, or presented the public with a choice collection of their most admired axioms. Among the Mussulman theologians was formed—a society of literati who maintained, that in order to attain perfection, it was absolutely necessary to join philosophy with the study of the alcoran. This new system of philosophico-theologism was an innovation in the doctrine of Mahometism; and, in fact, the Mussulmans had now their Predestinarians, their Pelagians, their Optimists, their Origenists; besides a vast variety of theologists who controverted the general and received laws of morality, and those of natural philosophy: some likewise pretended, that every Mussulman would infallibly be saved. Others held, that the Divinity resided in all men; and in Ali, in a very special manner; in a word, they believed him to be God incarnate.

In the Constantinopolitan empire, Bardas, encouraged by the example of the Arabians, and by the exhortations of Photius, had begun to revive the study of literature and the sciences, towards the close of the last century: his views were seconded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who invited from all quarters -philosophers, geometricians and astronomers, to come and teach at Constantinople. But from the depth of ignorance to the perfection of science, the progression is but gradual; and we do not find that the Greek empire produced any celebrated writers during the tenth century. An undiscerning relish for the marvellous was the order of the day; and this, perhaps, it was, that determined Metaphrastes to compile his Legends of the Saints;-a publication replete with the most extraordinary prodigies, ill authenticated at the best, and often suppositi

tious.

Europe, as already observed, was agitated with perpetual wars. The fury of arms had produced a general licentiousness; inflamed the passions; extinguished in many almost the light of reason itself. Still, however, there were many that retained

impressions of religion even in their greatest excesses. Virtuous persons availed themselves of these precious remnants of faithto represent to them in lively colours the dreadful chastisements reserved for wicked actors, in a future state. Often the agonies of remorse compelled these latter to adopt the severest methods of expiating their crimes, and frequently too, their consummate impiety hurried them into the superstitious practices-of augury and every species of divination, and other vain observances which had been in use with idolaters in preceding ages. Some ignorant and simple people had strange ideas with reference to the other world, and imagined, for instance, that it was a part of St Michael's office to sing high mass in heaven every Monday. The tenth age, notwithstanding, so fruitful in other evils of every description, gave not birth to any new heresy.

Eleventh century of the christian era.

The Mahometan empire was still under the nominal government of the califs, who in fact were but the phantoms of imperial authority, while their sultans ruled with arbitrary sway. Mahmoud, sultan of Bagdad, subjugated India,-established in those vast regions the religion of Mahomet, and caused above fifty thousand poor idolaters to be massacred in cold blood. While this sultan was thus busied in extending the boundaries of the Mussulman empire and superstition, the Seleucidæ, a warlike nation of the Turks, made themselves masters of several provinces hitherto subject to the jurisdiction of the sultans. The calif had invited them to rid him of the tyranny of Mahmoud, and declared their chief imperial viceroy over all the nations which God had entrusted to his charge;-king of the East and of the West. His successors added new acquisitions to his immense domains, waged a long and cruel war against the Constantinopolitan empire, and subdued Georgia; extending their dominion from Syria to the Bosphorus. The emperor Basil, who had prosecuted with vigor the re-establishment of the Eastern empire, was succeeded by his son Constantine. This prince, the more freely to indulge a voluptuous disposition, resigned the government of the state wholly to his ministers. By these-all former merit was rewarded with loss of office, or with death. During the entire lapse of the eleventh age-treachery, poison, and parricide, were the means ordinarily employed in the advancement or the deposition of an emperor. Hence we may easily form an idea of the disorders of the government, and of the deplorable condition of the people; who were, moreover, daily exposed to the incursions of the Bulgarians, Saracens and Turks. These barbarians must inevitably have even now re

duced the Constantinopolitan empire, had they not been frequently at variance among themselves. Nor was the Western atmosphere less turbid and tempestuous. From time to time indeed, it was partially illumined with the virtues and elevated genius of enlightened sovereigns; but these were not able, with their utmost efforts, to re-establish order; nor could they impart their virtues and their talents to those who were to wear the diadem when they should be no more. Gregory VII. was aware of this, and observed with sorrow the mischievous effects of power abused. He formed the project-novel, it must be owned, and equally unwarranted in the means to be employedof subjecting this power to the laws of christianity. This, he conceived, could not be otherwise effected but by the spiritual arms of the visible Head of the church, and the terrors of excommunication, attended with whatever might render them more imposing to the objects of ecclesiastical censure. His own virtue, and his ardent zeal did not permit him to foresce, that the Heads of the church themselves, who hitherto, in general, had deserved so well of christianity, might one day unworthily abuse that immense power thus to be transferred to the Roman pontiffs. He contemplated no other result from this mighty influence, than a certain antidote to the evils which desolated Europe. His motive was good, his warmest adversaries will readily allow; but his reasoning was inconclusive and fallacious, and his deductions wrong. However, to him they appeared accurate; and the ignorance of the times was not competent distinctly to ascertain the exact boundaries of ecclesiastical authority. Hence a prince excommunicated by the pope, was in consequence reputed no better than a tyrant ;- -a declared enemy of the church,-a reprobate wholly possessed by Satan. Thus, the sentence of the pontiff-deposing kings, and the excommunication which deprived them of the common rites of christianity, were by the ignorant received as oracles; and to sovereigns they were dreadful as the thunderbolt.

In this age, pilgrimages to the Holy Land were frequent; and the pilgrims were exposed to the attacks and insults of the Turks, who had possessed themselves of Palestine. On their

return they delineated in the most lively colours the hardships which they had undergone, and the deplorable state of christians in that devoted country. The sovereign pontiff, moved to tears at the affecting recital, exhorted Christendom to unite in wresting the Holy Land from the tyranny of infidels. On this interesting occasion, the bishops, the nobles, and the people, are alike transported with a praise-worthy zeal: more than six hundred thousand combatants successively volunteer their services upon this sacred expedition; eventually effect the conquest of all Palestine, and establish a new empire in the East. enterprise in itself was laudable; and the re-union of entire

The