ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



311 



I'austs of 

 hi; success. 



,;=ti- his eye comprehensive and keen; his judgment was 

 ">" cloar, his conduct decisive; his wit easy and social, his 

 elocution fluent, and he spoke the purest of all the dia- 

 lects which then prevailed in Arabia. 



Progress of In the depths of solitary retirement, and in the cave 

 Mahomet, of Hera, about three miles from Mecca, the impostor 

 of the East appears to have conceived the first idea of 

 his prophetical mission. His visions were many, and 

 his intercourse with heaven is said to have been fre- 

 quent and beatific. For a while, he confined his exer- 

 tions and his teaching to his own family and kindred. 

 Success, however, soon emboldened him to take a more 

 ample range, and to display himself upon a wider field. 

 Being constrained to fly from Mecca, in order to avoid the 

 rage of his enemies, the citizens of Medina, who had 

 already heard of his name and his pretensions, received 

 him with open arms. Here he erected his standard, 

 and declared his commission : with consummate art, he 

 touched the predominating feelings of his countrymen, 

 and filled their imaginations with the prospect of rich- 

 es and glory. The effect exceeded his utmost wishes. 

 Multitudes from every quarter enlisted themselves un- 

 der his banners, anxious and zealous to propagate the 

 faith, and longing to share the possessions of those who 

 should call in question the authority of their leader. 

 The fanaticism of the prophet now became more furi- 

 ous, and his artifice more profound ; and his plans be- 

 ing at length mature, he proclaimed to the whole 

 world the great dogma of Islamism, " That there is one 

 true God, and that Mahomet is his prophet." 



The system adopted by Mahomet was eminently cal- 

 culated to ensure success. His mode of proselytism, 

 though not extremely novel, was remarkable for its ef- 

 Whoever refused to acknowledge his mission, 

 was iu>t;;ntly put to death. It was with a naked sword 

 in his hand, and with uplifted arm, that this military 

 apostle preached the Koran. A logic so powerful was 

 not easily resisted. After completing the conquest of 

 Arabia, the leader of the faithful burst like a torrent 

 into the Roman territories, and soon convinced the 

 that whatever they might think of his argu- 

 ments or his eloquence, his sword was not to be des- 

 pised. ( hristianity, indeed, was now very different 

 from what it once had been. The pure worship, the 

 zealous attachment, and the magnanimous devotion of 

 I he early times, had in a great measure dimppeared ; 

 <m<l ilie church, torn with dissensions, enfeebled ami 

 listless, became an easy prey to its ferocious invaders. 

 The means by which the disciples of Mahomet were re- 

 tained anil secured, were not less effectual than his de- 

 risive way of propagating the faith. The rewards of 

 UlaiiiNin were neither remote nor spiritual ; neither dis- 

 tant in the period of enjoyment, nor at all unintelligible 

 to the M-n-e. A fifth part being reserved for pious and 

 charitable purposes, the spoil of the conquered nations 

 was divided in equal portions among the soldiers. The 

 true and faithful servant of the prophet was permitted 

 to indulge iti all sensual gratifications; he was allowed 

 a plurality of wives, and he was assured that in the 

 paradise of the blessed above, to which of course he was 

 admitted, he should be attended by females (houries) 

 of resplendent beauty, whose sole employment it should 

 be to execute his commands, or minister to his pli-a^in ,. 

 And it was declared to him, that his capacity for en- 

 joyment would be enlarged and perfected, according to 

 his means of gratification. The effect of all this upon 

 gross and voluptuous people, may easily be conceived. 

 This, however, is not the whole matter. While by one 

 part of the system, the love of pleasure was stimulated 



and gratified, by another part of it the fear of death and Ecclcsiasti- 

 of danger was completely destroyed. The prophet of cul ^' 

 Mecca taught the doctrine of unbroken and immove- """"Y"" 1 

 able fatality. The world, he said, stood secure by the 

 unalterable appointment of him who created it. The 

 lot of man was fixed ; no courage or dexterity could 

 change it. To our destiny we must come. Why should 

 we distress ourselves about future dangers, when these 

 dangers cannot be prevented ? Why should we harass 

 ourselves with the fear of death ? No concern of ours 

 can stop the progress of dissolution. The fate of the 

 world is not to be reversed ; the glory of the prophet 

 and of his followers is decreed ; victory is on our side, 

 and our names are enrolled in the records of the bles- 

 sed. 



The successors of Mahomet, not only propagated his 

 doctrine, but imitated his example. Their arms were 

 every where victorious ; and such was the rapidity of 

 their progress, that in little more than half a century, 

 the whole of Persia, Syria, and Egypt, and a great part 

 of Africa and Spain, had yielded to their irresistible 

 valour, and acknowledged the dominion of the prophet. 



CHAP. III. 



The History of ike Church of Christ, from the year 755, 

 tvhen the Supremacy of the Pope was acknowledged, 

 and his Temporal Dominion established, to the era of 

 the Reformation, about the Year 1545. 



THIS period may justly be denominated the period 

 of darkness. It comprehends in it more instances of 

 false opinion and elaborate folly, than all the other por- 

 tions into which the history of the church may be di- 

 vided. In this melancholy period, the religion of Je- 

 sus seems to be very nearly extinct, and im|>osture and 

 fanaticism arc dignified with its name. The historian 

 finds himself lost amidst the aberrations of the human 

 understanding, and the expressions of mistaken piety ; 

 and lias to grope his way through the monastic institu- 

 tions, and relics, and canonizations, and indulgences, 

 and to conduct his reader safe, amidst the interdicts <>!' 

 the popes, the battles of the crusaders, and the wrang- 

 ling of the schools. To expatiate on all these topics, 

 would carry us far beyond our limits ; we shall only 

 touch upon a few of them, and refer our readers to the 

 accounts which are given, under the different titles, in 

 other parts of the work. 



In the beginning of the ninth century, the passion Pas s i on f, ir 

 for accumulating the relics of the saints, appears to relics. 

 have reached an extraordinary height. A respect for 

 holy men when alive seems to have been extended to 

 their corrupted remains after their death; and the more 

 so, as every year brought new accounts of the miracles 

 performed by these exuviae of the faithful. In conse- 

 quence of his abstinences and his penances, the ancho- 

 rite is supposed to have overcome the malignity of mat- 

 ter, and to have purified and refined it, by infusing a 

 portion of his spiritual excellence into its native depra- 

 vity. And matter, once believed to be the origin and 

 the seat of all evil, is now represented as effectual in 

 licaling the sick, and in restoring the dead to life. Many 

 persons, some of whom were in eminent stations, and 

 others, distinguished by the learning which was preva- 

 lent at the time, travelled into Judea for the express 

 purpose of obtaining relics. The bodies of the apostles 

 and fust martyrs are said to have been dug up, and in- 

 numerable fragments, bones, or pieces of bones, legs, 



