CHAP. I. Concerning the Original of the Churches of Gallia Narbonensis and Aquitain .

BEfore the Gauls were entirely reduc'd by Cesar under the Power of the Roman Empire , and after that under the said Emperor , Gallia was commonly divided into two Parts , whereof the one was called Braccata , the other Comata . Gallia Braccata contained not only that part of Italy , which is beyond the Alps , and was named Cisalpina , but also Gallia Narbonensis , whereof Vienna was the Capital City . The other , to wit , Gallia Comata , was divided into three parts ; the first whereof was called Belgica , the other Celtica , and the third Aquitain . But Augustus being absolute Master of Gaule , made some Alteration in this Division ; for he extended the Bounds of Aquitain , by restraining those of Celtica , and distinguished Aquitain into three Provinces , whereof the first and second were on this side of the Garonne , and reached to the Loyre ; the third reached from the Garonne to the Pyrenean Mountains . Bourges and Bourdeaux were the Mother-Cities of the first and second of these Provinces ; and Eulse or Eaulse was the Metropolis of the third , which City having been destroyed by the Wars , Ausch succeeded her in that Dignity .

As for Gallia Narbonensis , which at first was only a Province , whereof Vienna was the Capital City , Augustus was pleased to take that Honour from her , to bestow it upon Lions , which seemed to him more commodious to be made the Seat of Government . This Province was afterward changed , by being divided into four Parts , viz. into Narbonensis , Viennensis , the Maritime Alps and the Greek Alps. And after this Division , Narbonensis was again subdivided into two parts , the first and second , as may be seen since the fourth Century .

It was needful at the entrance of this Discourse , to give the Reader this short Draught of the Countries that went under the Name of Gallia , to give him an Idea of that part of them , where we intend to shew him the Continuation of that Church which gave birth to the Albigenses , and furnished the West with Witnesses of so great weight against the Corruptions of the Romish Party ; and indeed though the Visi-Gothes , who cut off these Provinces from the Roman Empire ; and afterwards the French , who destroyed the Visi-Gothes in the time of Clovis , made very great Changes in this Division of Gallia Narbonensis and Aquitain , yet we may exactly observe , that the Church of these Provinces , hath well nigh always made a distinct Body by her Synods and Canons .

It is a matter of Difficulty precisely to fix the first Rise of these Churches . I own that some Greek Fathers have believ'd , that St. Luke and Crescens , Disciples of St. Paul , did preach the Gospel in Gallia ; but that which engaged them in this Opinion , seems of little or no solidity . And the Galatia mention'd by St. Paul in the second of Timothy , doth not signify Gallia , but a Province of the lesser Asia , as the learned Petavius acknowledgeth .

Others have believed , that St. Paul himself preached the Gospel in these Provinces , as he passed through them in his way to Spain , where the fourth Century took it for granted that he preached the Gospel : but neither doth this seem grounded upon sufficient Authority ; and we do not find that the antient Authors of these Countries did ever maintain any such thing .

Should we indeed , as to this Point , give credit to the most part of the Romish Legends , to which Baronius in his Annals pays too great a Deference , it would be an easy matter to give to the most part of these Churches a most august Original . We might suppose that St. Peter and St. Paul were the Founders of them by the Ministry of their Disciples , or that Clement Bishop of Rome sent them thither almost immediately after the Martyrdom of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul . They tell us that Paul was the first Bishop of Narbon , Saturninus of Tholouse , Martialis of Limoges , Frontinus of Perigueux , Vincentius of Daeqs , Georgius of Puy , Eutropius of Xaintes : Much like as for some Ages since , in most of the other Churches of France , they suppose that the first Bishops were sent them by the same Apostles , or by their first Successors .

But we meet with nothing but Falsities in these pretended Traditions : and it is impossible to reconcile them with what Sulpicius Severus and Gregorius Turonensis tell us concerning the Rise of Christian Religion among the Gauls . The former of these distinctly assures us , that Gaule never had any Martyrs before the Empire of Aurelius Son of Antoninus , Hist. lib. 2. Sub Aurelio Antonini filio Persecutio quinta agitata ; ac tunc primum inter Gallias Martyria visa , serius trans Alpes Dei Religione suscepta . The fifth Persecution was carried on under Antonine's Son ; and then first were Martyrdoms seen among the Gauls , the Divine Religion having been later entertained beyond the Alps. This single Period of Severus gives Sentence against all those pretended Martyrs wherewith the Churches of France have fill'd their Breviaries . The latter tells us plainly , that it was not till the Empire of Decius , about the year 250 , that the City of Tholouse had for her first Bishop Saturninus , who was sent from Rome in company of six others , into the Country of the Gauls , to preach the Gospel , to wit , Gatian at Tours , Trophimus at Arles , Paul at Narbon , Dionysius at Paris , Austremoine at Clermont , and Martialis at Limoges . This is that which is clearly proved from the Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Saturninus , cited by Gregory Bishop of Tours .

These Testimonies of two antient Authors , the one of the 5 th Century , and the other more antient , viz. the same who wrote the Martyrdom of St. Saturninus , have made such an Impression upon some of the Learnedest Men of the Roman Communion , viz. upon Bosquet Bishop of Montpellier , Sirmond , and Launoy the famous Doctor of the Faculty of Paris , as to make them with Scorn reject those Legends , which ascribe more antient Founders to these Churches , notwithstanding that they are the greatest Ornament of the Breviaries of the Gallican Church , and that they cannot lose their Credit , without shaking the belief of abundance of Miracles , and the Authority of a great number of Devotions .

And indeed , what reason is there to own a Tradition for authentick , which we scarcely find back'd with any Witness for the space of above 700 years ? Besides , don't we know , that it was the Dispute about Precedency between the Churches in the 8 th and 9 th Century , and which we find lasted till the 12 th , that engaged the several Parties to devise this great Antiquity , and boldly change that , which before had been the current Belief of their Churches , because it did not answer their Pretensions , nor comport with their Vanity , to substitute instead thereof fabulous Originals , under whose shelter they might maintain a Dispute with more advantage against those that were on even ground with them ?

But however it be difficult to fix the certain Original of these Churches , for the Gothick Liturgy , which was used in these Provinces , assures us that St. Saturninus came from Smyrna , from whence it should seem that the first Founders of the Churches of Lions and Vienna came likewise , yet thus much we may assert that the Gospel soon took deep root there .

My Design is not to refute here what the Authors of the Legends have inserted in their fabulous Relations , concerning the Establishment of the Christian Religion in these Provinces , and the Character of the Piety of those first Founders of Christianity , of their Precepts and of their Miracles . Indeed there is reason to deplore either the boundless Impudence of the Pastors of the Roman Communion , in obtruding such palpable Falsities , or the prodigious Stupidity of the People of that Church , who feed themselves with Stories more fabulous than those of Amadis of Gaul , and make them the Subject of their Devotion . We read in the Life of St. Martialis , that after the Saint had converted Limoges , he there consecrated Churches to the Honour of Jesus Christ , of the H. Virgin ▪ and St. Stephen , whose Cousin he was . We read that he raised to Life the Priests of the Idol , whom God had struck dead with a Clap of Thunder , for their poisoning St. Martialis ; and that , after their Resurrection , he converted them . We find that he admitted to the Vow of Virginity a Person called Valeria , who some time after having had her Head cut off , by order of the Duke of Guienne , whose Courtship she had slighted , immediately took up her Head , and carried it to St. Martialis , as he was saying Mass . We find him there going to Rome to give an account to St. Peter of his Commission : all this is very gravely related by the Legendaries ; yea , the Impudence of these Knaves proceeded to that Point , as in the ninth Century , to conciliate Authority to these fabulous Relations . Several Councils were assembled at Limoges , where with intolerable Impudence they imposed two Epistles upon St. Martialis , the one as writ to those of Tholouse , and the other to those of Bourdeaux , and which bear much a like Resemblance to the Apostolical Writings of those times , as Asses do to Lions : and all that these insipid Authors tell us about it , is so entirely framed according to the Manners , Notions and Customs of the later Ages , that we can find nothing in their Writings but what some stupid Monks have insolently invented and patch'd together , with so little regard to Reason , that one of these extravagant Fellows maintains that the Blessed Virgin was saying her Rosary at the time she was visited by the Angel Gabriel .

It is not certainly known whether the Books which St. Irenaeus has written against the Valentinians , ought to perswade us that those Hereticks had then already spread themselves among the Gauls ; for seeing he writ them in Greek , this Work seems to have been designed against the Hereticks of the East ; for though we have a Translation of these Books , more ancient than the time of S. Austin , yet we have no Proof that it was done with Design to refute Persons who had endeavoured to corrupt the Faith from the very Beginning of its Establishment in Gaul .

True it is , that in the fourth Century , Arianism had considerably corrupted and infected the Purity of these Diocesses : Saturninus Bishop of Arles , and those of his Cabal , having condemned St. Hilary Bishop of Poitiers , for an Heretick , because he opposed Arianism with all his Might ; but soon after we find that Truth raised her self again from under its Ruins : For though at the beginning of the fifth Century the Visi-Gothes who were Arians , had made themselves Masters of these Provinces of the Gauls , and which they remain possess'd of till they were taken from them by Clovis King of France ; yet we do not find that Arianism ever prevailed there , the Vigilance of the Pastors having prevented the Peoples yielding so far to the Authority of these Arian Kings , as to follow them in their Error , the very Nature of these Disputes ingaging the Enemies of the Church to maintain such Maxims , as put a stop to the Peoples Superstition , with respect to the Veneration of Martyrs .

I am not ignorant that St. Gaudentius takes notice that several Priscillianists were scattered up and down these Provinces , and Priscillianism was nothing else but Manicheism in Perfection , as appears from the Writings of St. Austin . But this evil Plant withered soon after ; both the Arians , who were Masters , and the Orthodox , equally joining their Endeavours to confound that Heresy . Neither indeed do we find after the sixth Century , any mention made of Priscillianists in these parts ; so that we may affirm that Christianity was preserved there with much Purity in those primitive times , and arrived to such a Degree of Strength and Vigor , as to banish both those Heresies , whereof the one attack'd the Father of our Saviour , and the other denied the Divinity of the Son .

But what I have already said in general , is not sufficient to give us a competent and just Idea of the Christianity which was planted in these Provinces , and which the Albigenses have so happily asserted , both by their Preachings and Sufferings . We must therefore take a Review of these Primitive Ages , and consider a little wherein consisted that Religion which these Diocesses received from those first Ministers of Jesus Christ , who conveyed thither the Doctrine of the Gospel , and transmitted the same to Posterity , as a sacred Trust committed to them .

CHAP. II. The Faith of the Church of the Gauls in the Second Century .

WE have no Gallick Author , whose Name is so famous as St. Irenaeus ; Euseb. l. 4. c. 20. he was a Disciple of St. Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna ; and being sent into Gaul by that Apostolick Man , he was first Priest of the Church of Lions , and afterwards succeeded Photinus , first Bishop of that City ; it was in his time that the Church suffered the fifth Persecution under the Government of the Emperors Verus and Marcus Aurelius . Eusebius has preserved the Relation of the Martyrdom of the Believers of Lions and Vienna , which according to all Probability is judged to have been made by St. Irenaeus in the Name of both these Churches .

This Relation tells us first of all , that the Roman President having caused some Slaves to be apprehended that belong'd to Christians , made them confess , at the Sight of Tortures prepared for them , that the Christians did eat Children in their Assemblies , and that they there promiscuously polluted themselves by abominable Incests ; which was afterwards confirmed by weak Christians , who for fear of Torments abjured their Religion .

2. That the Christians having confuted this Calumny , by their Constancy in induring the Torments , and above all the rest Blandina , who after a whole day's suffering Tortures , having cried with a loud Voice , I am a Christian : there is no Wickedness committed amongst us : ( which was seconded by Byblis , who before had abjured ) How , said she , should the Christians , to whom it is not lawful to eat the Blood of Beasts , devour Infants ?

3. Blandina is represented to us in these Acts , as praying to God with great Affection , and as it were conversing with Jesus Christ in Prayer . Attalus being set in a Chair of Iron , to be there burnt , and perceiving the smell of his broiled Flesh , said to the Spectators in Latin ; In hoc demum est homines vorare quod agitis ; nos verò neque homines voramus , neque omnino quicquam mali facimus . This that ye do here is indeed to devour Men ; but as for us , we neither devour Men , nor do any thing at all that is evil .

Lastly ; The Church was desirous to bury what remained of their Bodies , as the Relation informs us , but the Fury of the Pagans who burnt them to Ashes , hindred them : These are the chiefest Heads of this Relation , where we find nothing but God and Jesus Christ called upon , where we do not see the Believers troubling themselves to explain or qualify the corporal Manducation of the Body of Jesus Christ , as it became them to have done , had they believed their eating of him with their bodily Mouth ; and where there is not the least Word that might give us to understand that these Churches took care to preserve these so precious Relicks , to honour them with their Adorations , as in latter times has been done .

We find here also the Spirit of Calumny transporting the Heathens against the Disciples of Jesus Christ ; and how far the Cruelty of Torments may prevail to make Men confess the most enormous Calumnies to be true . The Reader must not forget these two Characters of old Rome , because the Inquisitors have renewed these very same Slanders against the Albigenses , and have pretended to confirm them by Confessions which the Cruelty of their Tortures have forced from them .

Neither is it only in this Work of his , that St. Irenaeus informs us , what in his time was the Faith of these Churches planted in Gaul , for he hath left us five Books , and Eusebius has preserved for us some Epistles of that ancient Bishop , altogether refulgent with the Purity of the Faith delivered by the Apostles .

1. St. Irenaeus gives us this for one Character of the Gnosticks , that they embraced Doctrines which were not to be found in the Writings of the Prophets or the Apostles , Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 33.

And 't is with the same Spirit that he attributes to Hereticks , the accusing of the Scripture for being unintelligible , without the Help of Tradition , whereas he maintains that that which had been preached , was committed to Writing by the special Will of God , to the end it might be the Ground and Pillar of our Faith , Lib. 3. c. 1 , & 2. And that it is to make the Apostles Hypocrites , to suppose that they taught some things in publick , and others in private ; whence it appears clearly , that when he makes use of Tradition , he only does it with respect to those scriptural Doctrines which the Hereticks opposed , and whereof they pretended that the Apostles had left the contrary to those that succeeded them , Lib. 3. c. 2. 'T is upon this occasion that he alledgeth the Testimony of the Church of Rome , founded by the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul , as of one that was most known : Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam ( saith he ) propter potentiorem Principalitatem , necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam , hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles , in quo semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea , quae est ab Apostolis Traditio ; For to this Church , because of its more powerful Superiority , it behoves the whole Church to come , that is , the Believers of all Parts , for as much as therein the Tradition from the Apostles has always peen preserved by the Believers of all parts . It is apparent that whatsoever Design he may have had to raise the Authority of the Church of Rome ; he makes no other use of it , than to make out , that it was impossible those Doctrines which the Hereticks gave out for Apostolical , should be really so , seeing they were unknown to a Church which had had the Apostles and their Successors for her Guides , more especially seeing that Church was placed in the very Seat of the Empire , which continually drew to Rome a vast number of Believers from all the different places of the Empire , from whence they brought not along with them a different Tradition from that which they found in the Bosom of the Church of Rome .

That St. Irenaeus had no other aim but this , is owned by F. Quesnel in his Notes upon the tenth Epistle of St. Leo , pag. 809. And this appears evidently , because after all that Esteem which he had for the Church of Rome , he was not afraid to write to her Bishop very censuring Letters , upon the account of his having excommunicated the Churches of Asia , that celebrated Easter the fourteenth of the Moon of March ; as also because he continued in the Communion of those Churches of Asia , without being concerned at the Excommunication of the Pope of Rome .

2. He reduces the whole Faith of Christians throughout the World , to that which we call the Apostles Creed , without mentioning so much as a Word of those Doctrines which the Church of Rome has superadded to it , pretending to confirm them by Tradition , Lib. 1. c. 2.

3. He maintains the Scriptures to be both clear and perfect , Lib. 2. c. 47.

4. He rejects the Doctrines which the Hereticks grounded upon the Explication of some Parables , maintaining that nothing ought to be established , but upon clear and evident places of Scripture , Lib. 2. c. 46.

5. It appears by his Writings , that Penance at that time was publick , without dispensing with Women that were overtaken with the Sins of Uncleanness , by which means being exposed to extream Confusion , it made some of them abjure Christianity , Lib. 1. c. 9.

6. He makes it appear that Caelibat was not yet known in Asia , whence these first Christians of the Gauls derived their Original , which is acknowledged by the Fevardentius , Lib. 1. c. 9.

7. He assigns to the Marcosians the custom of anointing those they received into their Communion , with Balm , [ Opobalsamo ] which shews , that at that time extream Unction was not known : And we may make the same Observation from his imputing to other Hereticks , the anointing of Persons at the Point of Death , with Oil and Water , Lib. 1. c. 18.

8. He attributes to the Gnosticks , the Imitation of the Heathens , because they had the Images of Jesus Christ , Lib. 1. c. 24. which makes it evident that the Christians had no Images , much less that they gave to them any religious Worship . And indeed we find him reasoning , lib. 2. c. 6. after such a manner , as shews that the Christians were yet in full Possession of a Right to reproach the Heathens with all those Absurdities that arise from the Use of Images . The same may also be gathered from lib. 2. c. 42. where he divides the Law into two Tables , in a manner very different from that of the Doctors of the Roman Church , and altogether conformable to the Judgment of Josephus and other Jewish Doctors .

9. He makes it appear that he knew nothing of the Separability of Accidents from their Subjects , which is the sole Support of Transubstantiation , lib. 2. c. 14.

10. He in plain terms ●ejects the Invocation of Angels , instead thereof recommending that of our Saviour Jesus Christ , lib. 2. c. 57.

11. He asserts that the Blessed Virgin had unseasonable Motions , intempestivam festinationem , John 2.3 . so far was he from believing her wholly free from Sin , lib. 2. c. 18. This shews that when he saith , cap. 33. Quod alligavit Virgo Eva per incredulitatem hoc Virgo Maria solvit per fidem ; What the Virgin Eve bound up by her Unbelief , that the Virgin Mary set free by her Faith ; he doth not own the Virgin for the Person that saved Men , but his meaning is like that of Hesychius , who said , speaking of the Women to whom Jesus Christ appeared after his Resurrection ; Invenêre enim , saith he , mulieres , quod olim amisere per Evam , lucrum invenit ea , quae damni occasionem praebuerat . For the Women found what formerly they lost by Eve ; she found the Gain , who had been an occasion of the Loss , T. 15. B. P. p. 823. col. 1.

And this is the sense likewise of that other Passage of St. Irenaeus , which we find , lib. 5. c. 19. for though he calls the Virgin . Eve's Advocate , it plainly appears that he meant nothing else but what is express'd by St. Chrysostom in Ps. 44. T. 3. p. 221. Virgo nos Paradiso expulit , per Virginem vitam aternam invenimus . A Virgin drove us out of Paradise , and by a Virgin we have found eternal Life .

12. That he did not believe we ought to have recourse to the Intercession of Saints , can be invincibly demonstrated from hence , because he did not believe that the Faithful should see the Face of God before the Day of Judgment , lib. 5. c. 3.

13. He plainly asserts that the Apostolical Succession is of no Consideration without the Truth of Doctrine . Lib. 4. c. 43. so far was he from making it a bar to hinder Believers from examining the Doctrine propounded to them .

14. He maintains that the Gates of Heaven were open'd to Jesus Christ , because of the Assumption of his Flesh ; so far was he from believing that his glorified Body could penetrate Bodies . Lib. 3. c. 18. & lib. 4. c. 66.

He asserts that Jesus Christ , at his being born , opened the Blessed Virgin 's Womb , lib. 4. c. 66. which the Church of Rome condemns for divers Reasons .

And for as much as he holds the Holy Ghost to be the Food of Life , lib. 4. c. 75. accordingly he maintains , c. 2. lib. 5. that our Bodies are nourished by the Creatures of God received in the Eucharist , and that they receive growth by them .

He distinctly asserts that the Sacrament of the Eucharist , as to its Substance , consists of Bread and Wine , which are the Creatures of God , which he receives as Oblations of a different kind from the Sacrifices of the old Testament ; and indeed in case he had otherwise conceived the matter , he would have favoured the Opinion of the Gnosticks , who pretending that the Work of the Creation was not the Work of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , could never have lighted upon a more comfortable Doctrine than that of Transubstantiation , by means of which the Nature of Bread and Wine would be destroyed by Jesus Christ in the Sacrament , and nothing left but the Accidents , that is to say , meer Fantomes , without any thing of Reality . L. 4. c. 34 , & 57.

In like manner we find him asserting , lib. 5. c. 33. that what Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples in the Cup , was the Generation or Product of the Vine .

15. We see clearly from what Eusebius has preserved of St. Irenaeus , that the Variety in observing a Fast before Easter was very great , and that there was no Law of the Apostles , or of Jesus Christ injoining it , every one using it according to his own free Will and Devotion . We find also that whatsoever Respect St. Irenaeus had for the Church of Rome , he was no more inclined to be led by her sole Authority , than St. Polycarp was , whom he much commends ; and if he considered her as an Apostolick Church , yet he never attributed to her any Authority over the other Flocks of the Lord .

I will not dissemble that St. Irenaeus seems somewhat at a loss , about the state of Believers after Death ; but to this it is sufficient to say ; 1. That we find in St. Irenaeus an Abridgment of the Faith almost in the same form that we find it in the Apostles Creed , as it is called . 2. That if we do not agree to all the Opinions of St. Irenaeus , about the State of Souls after Death ; 't is certain that the Doctors of the Church of Rome do at least reject as many Articles as we do , yea and more too .

From what I have said , we may however perceive what was the State of the Christian Religion in Gaul , a little after the middle of the second Century , which is the time wherein St. Irenaeus lived and flourished .

I wish I could produce for the following Century as Authentick a Witness concerning the State of the Churches in this part of Gaul ; but indeed though there were diverse famous Writers , whose Works are cited by St. Jerome , yet there is in a manner nothing of them left to us . I know there are some who believe that Victorinus was Bishop of Poictiers in the third Century : but this is not found true , for it is certain that he was Bishop of Passau Patavionensis , and not Pictaviensis ; so that we must proceed to those who can inform us of the State of this part of Gaul , during the fourth Century .