by all their researches and efforts in quest of happiness in it! They only fell from one precipice into another. Departing from its true centre, they sought it in every other object, but in their pursuits only wandered farther and farther from it. A soul can find no rest in creatures. How long, then, shall we suffer ourselves to be seduced in their favour! be always deceived, yet always ready to deceive ourselves again! How long shall we give false names to objects round about us, and imagine a virtue in them which they have not! Is not the experience of near 6000 years enough to undeceive us! Let the light of heaven, the truths of the gospel, shine upon us, and the illusions of the world and our senses will disappear. But were the goods and evils of the world real, they can have no weight, if they are compared with eternity. They are contemptible, because transient and momen tary. In this light the martyrs viewed them. Who is not strongly affected with reading the epitaph which the learned Antony Castalio composed for himself, and which is engraved upon his tomb in the cathedral of Florence! (a) That peace and rest, now in the silent grave, ON THE SAME DAY. St ANYSIA, M. Whilst the governor Dulcitius car ried on a cruel persecution at Thessalonica, to deter the Christians from holding religious assemblies, in 304, in the reign of Maximian Galerius, a Christian young lady, called Anysia, of rich and noble parents, by whose death she was left an orphan, resolved to go to the assembly of the faithful. As she passed by the gate of Cassandra, one (a) Quam vivens nunquam potui gustare quietem, Passio, cura, labor, mers, tandem et pugna, recessit, of the emperor's guards, who happened to see her, was taken with her beauty, and stepping before her, said: "Stay, whither are you going?" Anysia startled at his insolence, and fearing a temptation, made the sign of the cross upon her forehead. The soldier offended at her silence, seized her, and asked her roughly:" Who art thou, and whither art thou going?" "I am," said she, "a servant of Jesus Christ, and am going to the Lord's assembly." "I will prevent that," said he," and will bring thee to sacrifice to the Gods; for to-day we adore the sun" that day being called by the pagans sunday. Saying this, he tore off her vail to discover her face. Anysia endeavoured to hinder him; but the soldier, enraged, drew his sword, and ran it through her body, so that it came out on the other side. She fell down immediately, trembling and bathed in her blood, and there expired. Her name occurs in the Roman martyrology, in the Greek synaxary, and the menology of the emperor Basil, on the 30th of December, See her genuine Greek Acts, also her panegyric by Philotheus patriarch of Constantinople, mentioned by Allatius and by Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. T. 6. p. 513. See also Surius, 30 Decemb. Baron. ad an. 303. n. 48. Fleury, 1. 8. n. 304. St MAXIMUS, C. * Amidst the scandals, heresies, and schisms, by which the devil hath often renewed his assaults against the church, Providence hath always raised defenders of the faith, who, by their fortitude, and the holiness of their lives, stopped the fury of the flood, and repaired the ravages made on the kingdom of Jesus Christ by base apostate arts. Thus while Monothelism triumphed on the imperial throne, and in the principal sees of the east, this heresy found a formidable adversary in the person of the holy pope Martin, powerfully seconded by the whole Latin church, and by a considerable part of the Greek church: and while artifice joined to persecution, laboured in the East to annihilate the truth, faith shone with the highest glory and justre in the zeal, sufferings and death of St Maximus. This life more properly belongs to the 13th of August. Maximus, surnamed by the Greeks Homologetes, or Confessor, was born at Constantinople in 580. He sprung from one of the most noble and ancient families of that city; and was educated in a manner becoming his high Eirth, under the most able masters. But God inspired him with knowledge infinitely preferable to that which scools teach, and which the wise according to the world are often unacquainted with; he taught him to know himself, and conceive a due esteem for fervour and humility. In vain however his modesty sought to veil his merit, it was soon discovered at court: and the emperor Heraclius set so high a value on his abilities, that he ap pointed him his first secretary of state. This busy scene, far from weakening the fondness he had ever entertained for retirement, filled him with apprehension, and determined him to withdraw from the corruption and poison of vain and worldly honours. About this time Monothelism gained admission at court. (a) The sensible progress of that heresy under : (a) The heresy of the Monothelites, so called because they admitted but one will in Jesus Christ, was Demi-Eutychianism. Those that chiefly broached it were Theodorus, bishop of Pharan in Arabia, Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, and Cyrus, bishop of Phasus in Colchis, who was afterwards raised to the patriarchal see of Alexandria. These prelates secretly favoured the heresy of Eutyches In obedience to the laws of the church, and of the state, they received the council of Calcedon, and owned two natures in Jesus Christ but they denied that he had two distinct wills; they asserted, that he had but one will, compounded of the human and divine, and they called it Theandric. Sergius, by birth a Syrian, was of Jacobite parents. It was by this name the Eutychians were known in Syria, on account of one Jacob, surnamed Zangal or Bardai, a Syrian monk, and disciple of Severus patriarch of Antioch, who in his time was the most zealous supporter of Eu. tychianism. This monk greatly extended the doctrine of his master in Mesopotamia and Armenia, and his followers impudently nicknamed the Catholics Melchites or Royalists, because they received with the emperor the council of Calcedon. Sergius, who preserved a tincture of Eutychianism, approved a letter that Theodorus of Pharan had written to him, in which the author owned but one will in Jesus Christ. He himself sent a letter to Theodorus, wherein the same error was established, under the name of Menas patriarch of Constantinople, then dead, falsely supposed to have been written to pope Vigilius. He brought over to his party Cyrus bishop of Phasis, and the countenance of the prince, contributed not a little to complete his disgust against a post which exposed his faith to such dangerous trials. He was besides convinced and had him made patriarch of Alexandria. This betrayer of the faith found a formidable adversary in the person of St Methodius, who a little time after was elected patriarch of Jerusalem. Antioch fell under the yoke of the Saracens in the year of Christ 638, and the 28th of Heraclius. The see of this city remained vacant many years. It appears that Athanasius, the Jacobite patriarch, usurped the title of patriarch of Antioch: but he was never elected as such, neither did he ever take possession of this church. Sergius having ordained Macedonius in order to fill up the vacant see of Constan tinople, pope Martin refused to acknowledge him, as he was a Monothelite. Macedonius however assumed that title in the council which those of his party held at Constantinople in 655. He resided in this city, as well as his two successors, Gregory and Macarius. This last was deposed in the sixth general council, and sent to Rome, where he died in his heresy. Sergius imposed on pope Honorius by a letter full of artifice, dissimulation, and falsehood. He pretended that his only aim was to prevent disturbances, and scandal: he even falsely advanced that St Sophronius patriarch of Jerusalem (honour ed on the 11th of March) was of opinion, that the question concerning the will of Jesus Christ ought not to be agitated. Honorius, thus imposed on, returned in 633 an answer, wherein he authoriszed silence on this question, "not to scandalize, (said he), many churches, and lest ignorant persons, shocked at the expression of two operations, might look upon us as Nestorians; or as Eutychians, if we admitted but one operation in Jesus Christ." (Honor. Ep. ad Serg. in actis conc. 6. act. 12. p. 928 ) After the death of Honorius in 638, the pontifical chair was occupied by Severinus, who sat but two months. In 640, John the IV. was elected, who held a council at Rome, where the heresy of the Monothelites was condemned, as likewise the Ecthesis of Heraclius. The Ecthesis was an edict drawn up by Sergius. The emperor adopted and published it in 639. He began with commanding silence touching one or two operations in Jesus Christ; but he afterwards expressly declared that there was but one will in the Son of God. He excused himself to pope Joha the IVth, in saying that the edict had been drawn up by Sergius, who prayed him to sign it. When he understood it was condemned at Rome, he condemned it himself and revoked it. John the IVth addressed to him Honorius's apology. He there shewed that this pope had always held with St Leo, and the catholic church, the doctrine of two wills in Jesus Christ; that he only denied that there were in Christ, as in us, two wills contrary and opposite to one another, that of the flesh and that of the spirit; that he had constantly taught with the gospel that Jesus Christ had the will of the human nature, which he had united to his divinity. Pope John the IVth died in 642, after having sat twenty one months. Theodorus succeeded him. that his department in the state would soon burthen his conscience with the execution of orders contrary to its dictates and those of religion. He therefore did not hesitate a moment to resign, and retire to a monastery. But not to give umbrage at court, and to authorize his retreat, he alleged divers pretexts, and particularly a dread of the Arabs, who by their incursions spread alarm through all the East, and dared to carry their insults to the very gates of Constantinople. The Greeks were exhausted by the wars they had supported in the West against the Hunns, and in the East against the Persians. Their frequent defeats were a just punishment of the enormities with which they provoked the vengeance of heaven. As they continued incorrigible, divine justice exercised them with a new scourge, and abandoned them to the Saracens, a ferocious race, deriving their origin from Arabia. These barbarians spread themselves like a torrent over the empire, and overturned every thing that opposed their passage. Heraclius, who in his adversity had sought God with all his heart, and had experienced the effects of his protection, on a prosperous turn in his affairs forgot his divine benefactor. He blushed not to declare for heresy, and to put his confidence in men studied in nothing but the vile arts of dissimulation and deceit. He scandalized the whole empire by his indolence, and tarnished by shameful disorders the glory he at first had acquired by his bravery and virtue. He suffered the sect of Mahomet (b) to establish itself among the Saracens, who (b) MAHOMET, or rather Mohammed, began to publish his pretended revelations in the 38th year of his age, and the 608th of Jesus Christ. Some time after, with the help of a Jew and a Nestorian monk, he compiled his Alcoran, It is a monstrous heap of ab. surdity and nonsense, without design or connexion; and though we find in it some passages that strike with a certain air of grandeur, the whole is so foolish and puerile, and so full of repetitions, that one would need much patience to read any part of it even once. Mahomet engaged his wife Cadigna, and three of the principal in habitants of Mecca, Abubeker, Othman and Omar, to embrace his system of religion, and called it islam, a term which, according to Dr Pocok, signifies obeatence to God and his prophet. Hence his followers are distinguished to this day by the name of Moslem or Mussulmen. Mahomet was persecuted by the Coreishites, who were of |
