scriminated by some fainter or darker shades of
theology; but they generally agreed in the two principles, the contempt
of the Old Testament and the denial of the body of Christ, either on the
cross or in the eucharist. A confession of simple worship and blameless
manners is extorted from their enemies; and so high was their standard
of perfection, that the increasing congregations were divided into two
classes of disciples, of those who practised, and of those who aspired.
It was in the country of the Albigeois, in the southern provinces of
France, that the Paulicians were most deeply implanted; and the same
vicissitudes of martyrdom and revenge which had been displayed in the
neighborhood of the Euphrates, were repeated in the thirteenth century
on the banks of the Rhone. The laws of the Eastern emperors were revived
by Frederic the Second. The insurgents of Tephrice were represented by
the barons and cities of Languedoc: Pope Innocent III. surpassed the
sanguinary fame of Theodora. It was in cruelty alone that her soldiers
could equal the heroes of the Crusades, and the cruelty of her priests
was far excelled by the founders of the Inquisition; an office more
adapted to confirm, than to refute, the belief of an evil principle. The
visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or Albigeois, were extirpated by
fire and sword; and the bleeding remnant escaped by flight, concealment,
or Catholic conformity. But the invincible spirit which they had kindled
still lived and breathed in the Western world. In the state, in the
church, and even in the cloister, a latent succession was preserved of
the disciples of St. Paul; who protested against the tyranny of Rome,
embraced the Bible as the rule of faith, and purified their creed from
all the visions of the Gnostic theology. The struggles of Wickliff
in England, of Huss in Bohemia, were premature and ineffectual; but the
names of Zuinglius, Luther, and Calvin, are pronounced with gratitude as
the deliverers of nations.

A philosopher, who calculates the degree of their merit and the value
of their reformation, will prudently ask from what articles of faith,
_above_ or _against_ our reason, they have enfranchised the Christians;
for such enfranchisement is doubtless a benefit so far as it may be
compatible with truth and piety. After a fair discussion, we shall
rather be surprised by the timidity, than scandalized by the freedom, of
our first reformers. With the Jews, they adopted the