sists chiefly in ceremonial observances; and of the most salutary doctrines of Christianity, such as justification by faith and the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, they know nothing. The moral state of Abyssinia is but low. The marriage bond is easily dissolved, and the same man frequently marries several women in succession, the neglected wives attaching themselves to other men, and thus immorality is widely spread. They have not much regard for truth, and they steal habitually. Still Christianity is not without its elevating influences. They are not cruel though always at war, and seldom take the life of a prisoner. They are very charitable, and, though easily provoked, as easily reconciled to each other. Their hospitality to strangers is unbounded. They will starve themselves to entertain a stranger; and they have such a sense of honour that a thief by profession would not rob his master. The children of both sexes are remarkable for docility and virtue. Dr. Gobat found them better than other children of all the countries that he had travelled in. Thus Christianity, though in a corrupted form, feebly practised and imperfectly understood, has had sufficient power to raise the Abyssinian character to a height far beyond that to which any of the African nations in later ages has attained.

ALBIGENSES, THE.-These were dissenters from the Church

of Rome in the twelfth century, so called from Albi, in Languedoc, where they were condemned by a council in 1176, or because the greater part of Narbonnese-Gaul which they inhabited was called Albigesium. The Roman Catholic writers have handed them down as heretics of the Manichæan school, and many Protestant writers of note have adopted and given wider circulation to the charge. Mr. Elliot, in his recent work, "Hora Apocalyptica," has examined the question with great patience and research, and, we think, clearly established the conclusion of their orthodoxy. It was previously known that they descended from the Paulicians, a body of Christians in Thrace and Greece, who retained, with perhaps some errors of comparatively lesser moment, the great truths of the Gospel in the dark ages. Some of these travelled to the west, diffused their principles in Italy, and, crossing the Alps, converted large numbers in Southern. France, three hundred years before the Reformation dawned.

These were the Albigenses. Their principles spread with such rapidity, that in Languedoc the Church of Rome was deserted. St. Bernard, who was sent to reclaim, if possible, the lost members, exclaims, "The churches are without people, the people without priests, the priests without reverence; the sacraments are not held sacred, the festivals are not solemnized. By denial of the grace of baptism, infants are precluded from salvation; and men die in their sins, hurried away to the terrible tribunal without penitence or communion." The lamentation of the Latin father would give us reason to suspect that the heresy of which he complains consisted in a denial of the Romish doctrine of the sacraments; this we shall find to have been the case. Two contemporary writers, Evervinus and Eckbert, the former in a letter addressed to St. Bernard, the latter in a tract addressed to the rector of the cathedral of Cologne, give ample statements of the confessions made by these heretics, as they esteemed them, when brought before the ecclesiastical judiciaries. As regards the sacraments," they openly confessed," says Evervinus, "that daily at their tables, when they take their meals, according to the example of Christ and his Apostles, they consecrate their meat and drink into the body and blood of Christ by prayer; that besides baptizm by water, they had been baptized with the Holy Ghost; they charge us (Romanists) that we hold not the truth in the sacraments, but the traditions of men. With regard to orders, their discipline is this: first, by the laying on of hands, some of their hearers are admitted into the number of believers; then, after sufficient trial, they lay their hands on them again for the baptism of the Spirit, and so constitute them elect." The same writer asserts that in their diet they forbid the use of milk, and whatever has possessed animal life, that they despise the baptism of the Church of Rome and condemn marriage. This latter point, a subject of grave accusation against their morals, ought to be explained with reference to the Romish sacrament of marriage; for Evervinus himself observes, "they have among them continent women, as they call them, widows, virgins, their wives also; some of which are amongst the elect, others of the believers." And again, "as regards marriage, they allowed that only between two virgins, grounding their doctrine on such texts as, what God has joined together let not man put asunder; and whosoever marrieth her that is

divorced committeth adultery." He adds "they put no confidence in the intercession of saints; they maintain that fastings and other afflictions undertaken for sins are not necessary to the just or to sinners; for that whenever a sinner repents of his sins they are all forgiven him." This, the reader will observe, is scarcely consistent with what he said before on the subject of their diet; probably it may have been practised by some one subdivision of the party, or else it was a practice unconnected with religion. They denied purgatory, and all other things which have not been established by Christ and his apostles they call superstitious. They deny that the body of Christ is made on the altar, or that the pope was an apostle of Christ. Eckbert, the monk, describes them up to the year 1160 as abounding in the neighbourhood of Cologne. He says they were wont to defend their tenets from Holy Scripture, which they did so speciously that even the more learned of the clergy were very generally unable to reply. About the same time we have some notices of the same class of people under the curious names of Telonarii and Poplicani (probably rewra and publicani, in allusion to "publicans and sinners") in Burgundy. The charges against them, for which they were burnt, were, "the making void of all the sacraments of the Church, the baptism of children, the eucharist, the sign of the life-giving cross, the sprinkling of holy water, the building of churches, payments of tithes and oblations, marriage, monastic institutions, and all the dues of priests and ecclesiastics." Under the name of Cathari, or Boni-homines, they were condemned at the Council of Lombers, A.D. 1165. In answer to the several charges brought against them they replied thus that for inspired Scripture they received the New Testament; also Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, in those points of testimony and those only, which are authenticated by Christ and his apostles (quæ inducuntur à Jesu et Apostolis. This seems to have been designed to exclude the Apocrypha, rather than any part of the sacred canon). That, "in regard to the baptism of infants we would say nothing of our own, but only answer out of the epistles and gospels, that the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ was consecrated by every good man whether ecclesiastic or layman, and that they who received it worthily were saved, while they who received unworthily received to themselves damnation." Respecting matrimony they would only

answer in the words of St. Paul; respecting confession, repentance, and whether fasting and alms were necessary after repentance in order to salvation, "that the apostle James had said simply that they should confess one to another, and so be saved; and that they did not wish to be better than the apostles, or, like the bishops, to add anything of their own." They believed oaths unlawful; and, if persons ordained were bad men, they were not bishops or priests, but ravening wolves whom men ought not to obey. Whether the Albigenses of the twelfth century were abominable heretics or real Christians, and premature Protestants, the reader must decide. Except the imputation about marriage, no charge is alleged against their morals. Their constancy in suffering excited the wonder of their opponents. "Tell me, holy father," says Evervinus to St. Bernard, relating the martyrdom of three of these heretics, "how is this? They entered to the stake and bore the torment of the fire, not only with patience, but with joy and gladness. I wish your explanation; how these members of the devil could persist in their heresy with a courage and constancy scarcely to be found in the most religious of the faith of Christ ?"

The word Albigenses is frequently used as synonymous with the word Provençean or Languedocian; and thus employed the imputations of heresy and irreligion, cast with so much bitterness on the Albigenses, may not have been ill founded. Sir James Stephen remarks (in his Lectures on the History of France), that since, in the unrestrained license of speculation, which invariably succeeds to a revolt from ancient authority, many rash and dangerous theories have been always hazarded, it is not reasonable to refuse all credit to the statement of the historians hostile to them; that among the Albigenses there were some who gave such scope to their fancy as almost to destroy the whole system of revealed truth. But from the same testimony we may infer, that these were the few exceptions, and that, in general, they anticipated and held the same doctrines which after the lapse of three centuries were promulgated by the reformers of Germany and England. Dr. Ranken, who wrote an able, though now neglected, history of France fifty years since, has also examined the question with great care, and proves, from the admission of contemporary writers of the Church of Rome, that the morals of the Albigenses were pure, and that the charge of

Manichæan doctrine was, with regard at least to those who suffered for their religion, utterly without foundation, (vol. i. p. 205, &c.)

About the year 1200, the Albigenses, including the various sects so called, and a number of individuals properly of no sect, but all alike opposed to the Church of Rome, had become so numerous that they were in possession of Toulouse and eighteen other principal towns in Languedoc, Provence, and Dauphiné. Raymond VI., earl, or count, of Toulouse, was still an independent sovereign, doing homage neither to Pedro of Arragon, the supreme lord of the southern provinces of France, nor yet to Philippe Auguste, the French sovereign. The Albigenses were his subjects; he embraced their opinions and took them under his protection. Innocent III. then filled the papal throne. He heard with dismay the progress of the new opinions, and resolved to crush them. With this object he first of all launched the sentence of excommunication. The Albigenses were placed under an anathema, which extended to every one who might lodge or shelter them, deal with them in trade, either to sell or buy, or join with them in social or convivial intercourse. The clergy were required to forbid them the sacraments while living, or Christian sepulture when dead. The civil powers were commanded to confiscate their property and raze their houses to the ground. The means did not prove effectual. Raymond still showed favour to his heretical subjects, and the pope, in consequence, next sent two legates, Rainerius and Guido, to inquire into the causes of the failure, and demand the instant punish.. ment of the heretics. But even this step was not successful; and now Innocent despatched his apostolic legate, Peter of Castelneau, to demand that Raymond should extirpate his heretical subjects with fire and sword. Twice Raymond refused, and twice was he excommunicated, and his dominions laid under an interdict. The quarrel assumed an aspect similar to that which raged about the same time between Henry II., of England, and A'Becket. Yielding to the impulse of his wrath, Raymond, in an unhappy moment, exclaimed that he would make Castelneau answer for his insolence with his life. The threat was heard by one of his attendants, who followed the legate to his inn, entered into an angry debate with him there, and at length plunged a dagger into his heart. The pope,