Lord, and of his Descent into Hell. It contains many trifling, silly, and ludicrous relations, such as, the standards or colours bowing to Christ, as he passed: Jesus appearing to Joseph of Arimathea, after his resurrection, wiping his face from the dew, kissing him, and commanding him to remain in his own house for forty days; and a supposititious narrative of the events attending Christ's descent into hell, by Lentius and Charinus, two saints raised from the dead, at the resurrection of the Saviour. The following extracts from this impudent forgery, will enable the reader to judge of the kind of instruction afforded by these substitutes for the Gospel of Christ. The relation of Christ's descent into hell, is introduced by Joseph of Arimathea, addressing Annas and Caiphas, who were astonished to hear that Jesus was risen from the dead; and that others were risen with him; "We all," says he, "knew the blessed Simeon, the high-priest, who took Jesus, when an infant, into his arms, in the temple. This same Simeon had two sons of his own, and we were all present at their death and funeral. Go, therefore, and see their tombs, for these are open, and they are risen; and behold, they are in the city of Arimathea, spending their time together, in offices of devotion. Some, indeed, have heard the sound of their voices, [in prayer] but they will not discourse with any one, but they continue as mute dead men. But come, let us go to them, and behave ourselves toward them with all due respect and caution. And if we can bring them to swear, perhaps they will tell us some of the mysteries of their resurrection." Annas, Caiphas, Nicodemus, and Gamaliel, proceed to Arimathea, they find Charinus and Lentius, at their devotions, and adjuring them by the Law, to relate what they had seen, they tremble, look up to heaven, make the sign of the cross upon their tongues, and then calling for paper, write the account of what they profess to have seen. "When we were placed with our fathers, in the

depth of hell," say they, "in the blackness of darkness, on a sudden there appeared the colour of the sun like gold, and a substantial purple coloured light enlightening (the place.) Presently upon this, Adam, the father of all mankind, with all the patriarchs and prophets, rejoiced and said, "That light is the author of everlasting light, who hath promised to translate us to everlasting light.' And while we were all rejoicing, our father Simeon came among us, and congratulating all the company, said, 'Glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. "Afterwards there came forth one like a little hermit, and was asked by every one, 'Who art thou?' To which he replied, 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness John the Baptist.' But when the first man our father Adam heard these things, that Jesus was baptized in Jordan, he called out to his son Seth, and said, 'Declare to your sons, the patriarchs and prophets, all those things which thou didst hear from Michael the archangel, when I sent thee to the gates of paradise, to entreat God that he would anoint my head when I was sick.' Then Seth said, 'I Seth, when I was praying to God at the gates of paradise, behold! the angel of the Lord, Michael, appeared unto me, saying - - - - 'I tell thee Seth, do not pray to God in tears, and entreat him for the oil of the tree of mercy, wherewith to anoint thy father Adam, for his head-ache, because thou canst not by any means obtain it, till the last day and times." A dialogue then ensues between Satan, the prince and captain of death, and Beelzebub, the prince of hell, in which they are interrupted by suddenly hearing a voice, "as of thunder and the rushing of winds, saying, 'Lift up. your heads, O ye princes; and be ye lift up, O everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall come in."

This is succeeded by the appearance of the King of glory enlightening the regions of darkness, and throwing the devils into confusion. "Then the King of glory trampling upon death, seized the prince of hell, deprived him of all VOL. II.

L

his power, and took our earthly father Adam with him to his glory." A quarrel takes place between Satan and Beelzebub, in which the prince of hell reproaches the prince of death, with being the occasion of the ruin of his kingdom, by urging the Jews to the crucifixion of Christ. Jesus then places Satan under the power of Beelzebub; and delivers the saints out of hell. On the entrance of the saints into paradise, they meet Enoch and Elias, and after a conversation betwixt the liberated saints and them, the narrative proceeds, "Behold there came another man in a miserable figure, carrying the sign of the cross upon his shoulders. And when all the saints saw him, they said to him, 'Who art thou? For thy countenance is like a thief's; and why dost thou carry a cross upon thy shoulders? To which he answering, said, 'Ye say right, for I was a thief, who committed all sorts of wickedness upon earth. And the Jews crucified me with Jesus; and I observed the surprizing things which happened in the creation at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, and I believed him to be the Creator of all things, and the Almighty King, and I prayed to him, saying, 'Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.' He presently regarded my supplication, and said to me, 'Verily, I say unto thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise.' And he gave me this sign of the cross, saying, 'Carry this, and go to paradise; and if the angel, who is the guard of paradise, will not admit thee, shew him the sign of the cross, and say unto him, Jesus Christ, who is now crucified, hath sent me hither to thee.' When I did this, and told the angel, he presently opened the gates, introduced me, and placed me on the right hand in paradise, saying, 'Stay here a little time, till Adam, the father of all mankind, shall enter in with all his sons, who are the holy and righteous [servants] of Jesus Christ, who is crucified." The relation concludes with the thanksgivings of the patriarchs; and Charinus

and Lenthius, after professing to have revealed all they were permitted, each deliver in a separate account, written on "distinct pieces of paper," which, on examination, “are found perfectly to agree, the one not containing one letter more or less than the other." Charinus and Lenthius immediately change "into exceeding white forms," and are seen no more. Joseph and Nicodemus afterwards relate the account to Pilate, who enters it in the public records, and going to the temple, summons all the rulers, and scribes, and doctors of the law, and says to them, "I have heard that ye have a certain large book in this temple; I desire you, therefore, that it may be brought before me." And when the great book, carried by four ministers, [of the temple,] and adorned with gold and precious stones, is brought; Pilate adjures them to declare whether the Scriptures testify of Christ. Annas and Caiphas dismiss the rest, and then avow their conviction that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and true and Almighty God." "-Such is the nature of a work, which was deemed of sufficient merit and importance, to be translated into various languages, to be one of the earliest specimens of typography; and to be placed in the churches for the edification of the people!

In the universities and cathedral churches, it was, at this period a general custom for the public lecturers to read upon any book, rather than upon the Scriptures. "Their readings," says Dr. Knight, (Life of Colet,) "were ushered in with a text, or rather a sentence of Scotus and Aquinas ; and the explication was, not trying it by the word of God, but by the voice of scholastic interpreters, and the intricate terms of what they call logic; which was then nothing but the art of corrupting human reason, and the Christian faith. It is true, divinity lectures had been read in Latin within many cathedral churches, for the benefit (41) Jones's New and Full Method of settling the Canonical authority of the N. T. II. pt. iii, ch, xxviii. p. 262, &c. Oxford, 1798, 8vo.

of the priests and clerks belonging to them. But the subject of them (as of all sermons ad clerum in the two universities, and in all ordinary visitations of the rural clergy) was commonly a question in scholastic theology, running into frivolous doubts, and elaborate resolutions out of the oracles of Scotus, and his puzzling interpreters; not to edification, but to a confounding the thoughts of God and religion." On one occasion, the learned Grocyn gave a singular instance of candour and ingenuousness. He read in St. Paul's cathedral a lecture upon the book of Dionysius Areopagita, commonly called Hierarchia Ecclesiastica. In the preface to his lecture, he declaimed with great warmth against those who either denied or doubted of the authority of the book on which he was reading. But after he had continued to read on this book a few weeks, and had more thoroughly examined its authenticity, he entirely changed his views of it, and openly declared that he had been in an error; and that the said book in his judgment was spurious, and never written by that author, who is in the Acts of the Apostles, called Dionysius the Areopagite."

Occupied as the clergy were, in scholastic disputations; and the nobility, in pursuit of pleasure and martial honours; they were generally inattentive to the interests of literature and science. The Latin language declined in its classical purity; and the Greek was almost unknown. The mathematical sciences, though not entirely neglected, were chiefly studied by the pretenders to astrology: and when we find learning at so low an ebb among those of high rank, and of the ecclesiastical profession, we may justly conclude that the common people would be almost totally illiterate. We accordingly learn that "it was not till the reign of Henry IV. that villeins,* farmers, and mechanics, (42) British Biography, I. pp. 328. 372. 377.1

* Villeins were those under the feudal system, who were liable to be sold with the land they occupied, but differed from Slaves, by paying a fixed rent for the farm to which they were attached.