saltem præsumpto totius Corporis." As the bishops said in the Assembly, in 1714, this was a most convenient doctrine for the appellants, for as they considered themselves the purest portion of the Church, they never would give their consent to the censures fulminated against them, and, consequently, despised them.

ARTICLE V.

THE ERRORS OF MICHAEL MOLINOS.

29. The unsound Book of Molinos called the "Spiritual Guide." 30. His impious Doctrine, and the Consequences deduced from it. 31. His affected Sanctity; he is found out and imprisoned, with two of his Disciples. 32. He is condemned himself, as well as his Works; he publicly abjures his Errors and dies penitent. 33. Condemnation of the Book entitled "The Maxims of the Saints."

29. THE heresy of the Beghards, of which we have already treated (Chap. x. art. iv. n. 31), was the source of the errors of Molinos. He was born in the diocese of Saragossa, in Arragon, and published his book, with the specious title of "The Spiritual Guide which leads the Soul by an interior way to the acquisition of perfect Contemplation, and the rich treasure of internal Grace." It was first printed in Rome, next in Madrid, then in Saragossa, and finally in Seville, so that in a little time the poison infected Spain, Rome, and almost all Italy. These maxims were so artfully laid down, that they were calculated to deceive not alone persons of lax morality, who are easily led astray, but even the purest souls, given totally to prayer. We ought to remark, also, that the unfortunate man did not, in this book, teach manifest errors, though he opened a door by it for the introduction of the most shocking principles (1).

30. Hence, the consequence was, that those who studied this work were oppressed, as it were, by a mortal lethargy of contemplation and false quietism. Men and women used to meet together in conventicles professing this new sort of contemplation; they used to go to Communion satisfied with their own spirit, without confession or preparation; they frequented the churches like idiots, gazing on vacancy, neither looking to the altar where the Holy Sacrament was kept, nor exciting their devotion by contemplating the sacred images, and neither saying a prayer, nor performing any other act of devotion. It would be all very well if they were satisfied with this idle contemplation and imaginary quietude of spirit, but they constantly fell into gross acts of licentiousness, for they believed that while the soul was united with God it was no harm to allow the body unbridled license in sensuality, all which, they said, proceeded solely from the violence of the devil or the animal pas

(1) Bernin. Hist. de Heres. t. 4, sec. 17, c. 8; Gotti, Ver. Rel. 120.

sions; and they justified this by that text of Job (xvi. 18): "These things have I suffered without the iniquity of my hand, when I offered pure prayers to God." Molinos, in his forty-ninth proposition, gives an impious explanation to this text; "Job ex violentia Dæmonis se propriis manibus polluebat," &c. (2).

31. This hypocrite lived in Rome unfortunately for twenty-two years, from the year 1665 till 1687, and was courted by all, especially by the nobility, for he was universally esteemed as a holy man, and an excellent guide in the way of spiritual life. His serious countenance, his dress neglected, but always clerical, his long and bushy beard, his venerably old appearance, and his slow gait, all were calculated to inspire devotion, and his holy conversation caused him to be venerated by all who knew him. The Almighty at length took compassion on his Church, and exposed the author of such iniquity. Don Inigo Carracciolo, Cardinal of St. Clement, discovered that the diocese of Naples was infected with the poisonous error, and immediately wrote to the Pope, imploring him to arrest the progress of the heresy by his supreme authority, and several other bishops, not only in Italy, but even in France, wrote to the same effect. When his Holiness was informed of this, he published a circular letter through Italy, pointing out, not so much the remedy as the danger of the doctrine which was extending itself privately. The Roman Inquisitors then, after taking information on the subject, drew up a secret process against Molinos, and ordered his arrest. He was accordingly taken up, with two of his associates, one a priest of the name of Simon Leone, and the other a layman, called Anthony Maria, both natives of the village of Combieglio, near Como, and all three were imprisoned in the Holy Office (3).

32. The Inquisition, on the 24th of November, 1685, prohibited the " Spiritual Guide" of Molinos, and on the 28th of August, 1687, condemned all his works, and especially sixty-eight propositions extracted from his perfidious book "The Guide," and of which he acknowledged himself the author, as we read in Bernini (4). He was condemned himself, together with his doctrine, and after twenty-two months' imprisonment, and the conviction of his errors and crimes, he professed himself prepared to make the act of abjuration. On the 3rd of September, then, in 1687, he was brought to the Church of "the Minerva," before an immense concourse of people, and was placed by the officials in a pulpit, and commenced his abjuration. While the process was read, at the mention of every heretical proposition and every indecent action proved against him, the people cried out with a loud voice, "fuoco, fuoco"-" burn him." When the reading of the process was concluded, he was conducted to the feet of the Commissary of the Holy

(2) Gotti, n. 2, 3. (3) Gotti, loc. cit. n. 4, 5, 6. (4) Bernin. loc. cit.

Office, and there solemnly abjured the errors proved against him, received absolution, was clothed with the habit of a penitent, and received the usual strokes of a rod on the shoulders; he was then again conducted back to the prison of the Holy Office by the guards, a small apartment was assigned to him, and he lived for ten years with all the marks of a true penitent, and died with these happy dispositions. Immediately after his abjuration, Pope Innocent XI. published a Bull on the 4th of September, 1687, again condemning the same propositions already condemned by the Holy Inquisition; and on the same day the two brothers, the disciples of Molinos, Anthony Maria and Simon Leone, already mentioned, made their abjuration, and gave signs of sincere repentance (5).

33. About the end of the 17th century there was a certain lady in France, Madame Guion, who, filled with false notions of spiritual life, published several manuscripts, against which Bossuet, the famous Bishop of Meaux, wrote his excellent work, entitled "De Statibus Orationis," to crush the evil in the bud. Many, however, deceived by this lady's writings, took up her defence, and among these was Fenelon, the Archbishop of Cambray, who published another work, with the title of "Explanations of the Maxims of the Saints on Interior Life." This book was at once condemned by Innocent XII., who declared that the doctrine of the work was like that of Molinos. When Fenelon heard that his book was condemned he at once not only obeyed the decision of the Pope, but even published a public edict, commanding all his diocesans to yield obedience to the Pontifical decree (6). The propositions condemned by the Pope in this book were twenty-three in number; they were condemned on the 12th of March, 1699, and Cardinal Gotti gives them without curtailment.

SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER.

HERESIES OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.

1. Introductory Matter. 2. Rationalists. 3. Hernhutters, or Moravians. 4. Swedenborgians, or New Jerusalemites. 5. Methodism; Wesley. 6, 7. Doctrines and Practices of the Methodists. 8. Johanna Southcott. 9. Mormonism. Table Rapping. Tertullian. 10. German Catholics.

1. THE holy author, as the reader may perceive, concludes his History of Heresies with the account of the famous Bull Unigenitus, which gave the death-blow to Jansenism. He brings down the history of this most dangerous of sects and its ramifications to the Pontificate of Benedict XIV. A little more than a century has (6) Gotti, Ver. Rel. c. 5.

(5) Bernin. 4, c. 8.

elapsed since, and though heresy has produced nothing neww-for every heresiarch only reproduces the errors of his predecessorsstill it will not, I hope, be ungrateful to the reader to have before him a succinct account of the sectaries who have since appeared, especially the Methodists, the most numerous, and, on many accounts, the most remarkable body of the present day. It is a fact which every close observer must be aware of, that heresy naturally tends to infidelity. When once we lose hold of the anchor of Faith, and set up our own fallible judgments in opposition to the authority of the Church, we are led on from one false consequence to another, till in the end we are inclined to reject Revelation altogether. Such is the case, especially in Germany at the present day, where Rationalism has usurped the place of religion, and infidelity is promulgated from the Theological Chair. It is true that in Catholic countries infidelity has also not alone appeared, but subverted both the throne and altar, and shaken society to its very foundations; but there it is the daughter of indifferentism. Lax morality produces unbelief, and those whose lives are totally opposed to the austere rule of the Gospel, are naturally anxious to persuade themselves that religion is altogether a human invention. This madness, however, passes away after a time. Religion is too deeply rooted in the hearts of a truly Catholic people to be destroyed by it. The storm strips the goodly tree of a great deal of its fruit and foliage, the rotten branches are snapped off, and the dead and withered leaves are borne away, but the vital principle of the trunk remains untouched, and in due season produces again fruit a hundred-fold.

2. That free spirit of inquiry, the boast of Protestantism, which, rejecting all authority, professes to be guided by reason alone, produced Rationalism. Luther and Calvin rejected several of the most important Articles of the Christian Faith. Why should not their followers do the same? They appealed to reason-so did their disciples; one mystery after another was swept away, till Revelation, we may say, totally disappeared, and nothing but the name of religion remained. The philosopher Kant laid down a system, by which true and ecclesiastical religion were distinguished. True religion is the religion of reason; ecclesiastical, the religion of Revelation, and this is only a vehicle for conveying the truths of natural religion. By this rule, then, the Scriptures were interpreted. Nothing but what reason could measure was admitted; every mystery became a myth: miracles were all the effects of natural causes, working on an unenlightened and wonder-loving people. Hetzel, Eichhorn, the Rosenmüllers, promulgated these blasphemies. Strauss, in his "Life of Christ," upsets all Revelation; and Becker teaches that St. John the Baptist and our Lord, with the determination of upsetting the Jewish Hierarchy, whose pride and tyranny they could not bear, plotted together, and agreed that one should play the part of the precursor and the other of the

Messiah. Such is the woeful state of Continental Protestantism, and the worst of it is, that it is a necessary consequence of the fundamental principle of the Reformation, "unrestricted liberty of opinion" (1).

Their

3. In contra-distinction to the Rationalists, we have the Pietists in Germany, who cannot so much be called a sect as a party. They date their origin from Spener, who flourished in Frankfort in the sixteenth century, and caused a great deal of disturbance in the Lutheran Church in that and the following age. They are entitled to our notice here, as from some of their doctrines originated some extraordinary sects. Among these may be ranked the Hernhutters, otherwise called Moravians, and by themselves, "United Brethren." They assert that they are the descendants of the Bohemian and Moravian Hussites of the fifteenth century; but it is only in the last century they appeared as a distinct and organized sect, and now they are not only numerous and wealthy, but have formed establishmentspartly of a missionary and partly of a trading character-in many parts of the world, from Labrador to Southern Africa. founder was Count Zinzendorf, who, in 1721, on attaining his majority, purchased an estate called Bertholsdorf, in Lusatia, and collected round him a number of followers, enthusiasts in religion, like himself. A carpenter of the name of Christian David came to join him from Moravia, and was followed by many of his countrymen, and they built a new town on the estate, which was at first, from the name of a neighbouring village, called Huthberg, but they changed it to Herren Huth, the Residence of the Lord, and from that the sect took its name. They profess to follow the Confession of Augsburg, but their government is totally different from that of Lutheranism. They have both bishops and elders, but the former have no governing power; they are merely appointed to ordain, and, individually, are but members of the general governing consistory. Zinzendorf himself travelled all over Europe, to disseminate his doctrines, and twice visited America. He died in 1760 (2). The doctrines preached by this enthusiast were of the most revolting and horrible nature. All we read of the abominations of the early Gnostics is nothing, compared to the revolting and blasphemous obscenity to be found in his works. An attempt has been made by some of his followers to defend him, but in vain, and it is truly a melancholy feeling to behold the sacred name of religion prostituted to such vile abominations (3).

4. Emmanuel Swedenborg, the founder of the New Jerusalemites, was another extraordinary fanatic, and his case is most remarkable, since he was a man of profound learning, a civil and military engineer, and the whole tenor of his studies was calculated to banish

(1) Perron. de Protes. (3) Mosheim, Cent. XVIII.

(2) Encyc. Brit. Art. Zinzendorf and United Brethren.