since the seventh century; but now, finding themselves surrounded by the various principalities established by the Latins in the time of the crusades, they embraced the faith, discipline, and obedience of the pope. About this time, the Gospel was introduced into Livonia, a country on the Baltic, by Meinard, canon of Sigeburg, who made several voyages there with the merchants, and gained many converts. Finding his work prosperous, he applied to the archbishop of Bremen for additional authority, and was ordained bishop, when he fixed his see at Riga, and converted great numbers of the heathen. Berno, bishop of Suerin, who died in 1195, had also baptised many of the Sclavonians, abolished their idols, and cut down their groves.

In 1210, some Cistertian monks preached the Gospel in Prussia; and some years afterwards, the pagans of that country having most dreadfully persecuted the Christian converts, they were subdued by Crusaders, and by the powerful order of Teutonic knights, and gradually converted to Christianity. In this century also, the Mohammedans were deprived of their dominion in the greater part of Spain, and Christianity was re-established in that country. They had already been despoiled of Sicily by the Normans. In 1230, the king and people of Courland, on the Baltic sea, made a treaty with the Roman legate in Germany, by which they undertook to receive the Gospel. The Franciscan and Dominican friars, in the latter part of this century, preached in Tartary with considerable success. They were sent by Nicholas IV. with letters to the emperor of Tartary, and to the Nestorians; and they succeeded in erecting several Christian churches in China, which was then under the dominion of the Tartars. One of these pious missionaries, named John à Monte Corvino, translated the Psalms and

the New Testament into the Tartar language. In 1307, 1311, and 1338, Clement V. and Benedict XII. sent several bishops into Tartary and China; but after that period, their missions seem to have fallen into decay. The last country in Europe which received the Christian religion was Lithuania. Jagello, duke of Lithuania, was still a pagan, when on the death of Louis, king of Poland, he was named amongst the candidates for the vacant throne; but his infidelity was an invincible obstacle to the attainment of his wishes. It is to be hoped that his conversion was sincere, as he persuaded all his subjects to embrace Christianity, at the same time that he himself did, in 1386.

The conquests of the Portuguese in Africa and India led to the spread of Christianity in those countries. The sovereigns of that nation felt themselves bound to use all their influence for the propagation of the Gospel in their dominions; and the first result was the conversion of the king and people of Congo in Africa, in 1491. The subsequent settlement of the Portuguese in India was distinguished by similar blessings. The conquest of South America and of the West Indies, by the Spaniards, was also made the means of disseminating the Christian faith through those wide regions, though we cannot but deplore the cruelties which were practised in the subjugation of the unfortunate inhabitants of those countries.

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH.

A.D. 1054-1517.

HE belief of the eastern and western branches of the universal Church reImained the same in all articles of faith, during the period now before us, as it had been before the division. The Nicene creed was universally received as the rule of faith. The six holy cecumenical synods were still regarded with the greatest veneration; but the decrees of the Nicene synod in favour of images, which pretended to be the seventh œcumenical synod, were only approved by the eastern and by a portion of the western Churches. The principal point of doctrinal difference between the East and West, was the procession of the Holy Spirit; for the former asserted, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only, while the latter believed that He also proceeds from the Son. However, as the former allowed that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father by the Son, the difference did not seem irreconcilable. The doctrine of purgatory, which was held by the popes, and a large party in the West, as an article of faith, was another point of dissension between them and the Greek Church, by which this doctrine was constantly denied. the exception of these points, there was no difference in matters of faith between the East and West. The doctrines of the Trinity, incarnation, divinity of our Lord, the atonement, original sin, and the need of divine grace; the obligation of good works,

With

of repentance, prayer, fasting, alms-giving, charity, and all other Christian acts and habits, were universally maintained. The faith of the western Church is shewn by its condemnation of various heretics, such as Peter de Bruis and Arnold of Brescia, who, in the twelfth century, denied infant baptism, and destroyed churches. The Albigenses, who held Manichæan heresies, and were a branch of the Paulicians already mentioned, were condemned in several councils, especially the great Lateran synod, in 1216, which, in opposition to their errors, made a definition of faith in the Triune God, the only Principle and Author of all things; the authority of the Old Testament; our Lord's incarnation, suffering, bodily ascension into heaven; the resurrection of the body at the last day; the importance of the eucharist, and the real presence of Christ's body and blood; the necessity of baptism, and lawfulness of marriage. The Manichæans denied all this: and the decree furnishes a clear proof that the western Church always maintained its ancient faith.

This celebrated decree was as follows: "We firmly believe and sincerely confess that there is but one true God, Eternal, Infinite, Almighty, Unchangeable, Incomprehensible, and Ineffable, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, three persons, but one essence, substance, or nature, altogether uncompounded. The Father is derived from none, the Son is of the Father only, the Holy Ghost is from both alike, without beginning and without end. The Father begetting, the Son being born, the Holy Ghost proceeding, of the same substance, co-equal, alike Almighty and Eternal, one principle of all things, Creator of all things visible and invisible, spiritual and bodily; Who, by his own almighty power, created from the beginning

of time, out of nothing, both the spiritual and the corporeal, the angelic and the earthly creatures, and then the human creature as composed both of spirit and body. But Satan and the other devils were created naturally good by God, but became evil of themselves; and man sinned by the instigation of the devil.

"This holy Trinity, which is undivided as regards its common essence, but distinguished as regards its personal qualities, bestowed saving doctrine on the human race through Moses and the holy prophets and others, according to a most settled order of time; and at length the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, being made flesh by the whole Trinity in common, conceived of Mary, ever-virgin, by the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, and made true man, composed of a reasonable soul and human flesh, one person in two natures, shewed to us more plainly the way of life; Who, though he was immortal and incapable of suffering according to his divine nature, yet according to his human nature was mortal and liable to suffering; and having suffered and died on the wood of the cross for the salvation of the human race, he descended into hell, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. He descended in soul, rose again in body, and ascended with both alike, and shall come again at the end of the world to judge the living and the dead, and to render to every one according to his works, as well the reprobate as the elect; who shall all rise with their bodies which they now bear, to receive every one according to what he deserves, whether it be good or evil, the one perpetual punishment with the devil, the other eternal glory with Christ.

"And there is one universal Church of the believing, out of which no one is saved, in which