THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. VOLUME THE THIRD: CONTAINING THE SIXTH, SEVENTH, EIGHTH, NINTH, TENTH, ALSO PART OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY, WHICH INCLUDES THE HISTORY OF THE WALDENSES TO THE REFORMATION. BY THE LATE REV. JOSEPH MILNER, A.M. EDITION THE THIRD, REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE REVD ISAAC MILNER, D.D. F.R.S. DEAN OF CARLISLE, AND PRESIDENT OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. London: Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons, FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, IN THE STRAND. 1812. 270 ^^1812 W3 IF the real Church Historian find it a difficult task to extract a connected view of his peculiar subject from the Ecclesiastical materials of the fourth and fifth Centuries, that difficulty is multiplied a hundred fold, while he labours through the long and gloomy period, which in the present Volume engages his attention. Impressed, however, with the certain truth of the declaration made by the Divine Author of Christianity, "that the gates of hell shall never prevail against his Church," I have endeavoured all along to discover her actual existence. How far I have succeeded, the Reader must determine for himself. If the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel have not been exhibited, both as professed in various parts of the world, and as productive of those fruits of holiness, which are peculiarly Christian, my aim has been missed, and the grand design of the whole narration has failed. But I hope the Scriptural Reader will see the lineaments of the Church pervading these dark Centuries; provided that he divest himself of all partial regards for sects and denominations, ages and countries, and attend exclusively to the marks and evidences of genuine Christianity. This is the right frame of spirit, which the subject before us requires; and it is what I have steadily endeavoured to preserve. Tros Rutlusve fuat nullo discrimine habebo. In the former part of the Volume, Gregory I. of Rome, and the English Christians, will be found |