any moral quality. It is a contracted form of aepyos, without work, without labour, and is applied by classic authors to land not cultivated, or left to itself, the produce of which is therefore spontaneous. Pythagoras would rather that his disciples should throw stones at random, than utter an apуov Xoyov, idle or random speech. Though the word in question occurs several times in the New Testament in relation to persons, it is found referring to things in this place only. The Septuagint use it in reference to things in but one place, where its import is disputed. Symmachus renders by this word the Hebrew n, without form, Gen. i. 2. In the Apocryphal Book, Ecclesiasticus, we find apyw oidnow, rude, unpolished iron. - Schleusner, Lexicon. Vet. Test.

3. In reference to persons, therefore, apyos denotes moral obliquity, all that we mean by idle, slothful, and such like; but in reference to things, it denotes merely the absence of care, attention, preparation; and in reference to words, the absence of premeditation or design. Hence, we may conclude, that the " idle word" of this passage means, free, spontaneous conversation; and that our Lord admonishes us, that not only our deliberate and studied communications to others, but our unstudied, off-hand, spontaneous conversation, suggested by the present temper of our minds, will come into account, whether favourable or unfavourable, before God.

4. This interpretation not only coincides with the tenour of our Lord's discourse, but contributes to its continuity and energy. Free, uncontrouled, verbal communications, are according to the state of the heart, or moral disposition: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," ver. 34. Hence such communications are

indicative of moral character, whether good or bad: "a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things," ver. 35. Every one's ordinary conversation, therefore, will come into account at the day of judgment, in evidence of his character and state of mind: "I say unto you, that every unpremeditated word, which man shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." And according to this evidence, among others, will the final condition of every individual be determined: "for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned," ver. 37.

Thus the passage before us confirms the declaration of David, Psalm xii. 2-4. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour; with flattering lips and a double heart do they speak. The Lord will cut off all flattering lips, and the mouth that speaketh proud things; who have said, with our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is Lord over us?" It also delightfully harmonizes with the announcement of the prophet, Mal. iii. 16-18. "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels," &c. Thus, moreover, it enforces the exhortation of the Apostle, Col. iii. 8, 9; and chap. iv. 6. "Put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."

H.*

The History of the Crusades against the Albigenses, in the Thirteenth Century. From the French of J. C. L. Simonde De Sismondi. With an Introductory Essay by the Translator.-8vo. pp. xl. and 266. Wightman and Cramp.

1826. Price 9s.

THE history of persecution furnishes the most melancholy illustration of the depravity of human nature. When intolerance and malignity are displayed by those who are avowedly irreligious, whether in nominally Christian, or in idolatrous countries, we can at once account for their developement. But when under any possible modification of Christian principles, and in alleged support of the sacred cause, the weapons of a carnal warfare are employed, and proscriptions and penalties are adopted for its defence and propagation, we are in such circumstances called to witness the most awful proofs of that depravity. The religion of Jesus is the religion of love. Benevolence was the brightest characteristic of his life, during his mysterious sojourn on earth. Most distinctly did he reprobate the principle which leads to intolerance; in the most explicit terms his disciples were enjoined to combine an inflexible regard to the purity of their principles, with a spirit of meekness and forbearance; and most solemnly were they forbidden to have recourse to any secular measures in support of the cause of their divine Master. Never was that cause so triumphant as when its spirituality and benevolence were most actively displayed by its first confessors and advocates. It had been announced as the great object of the Redeemer's commission, that HE came" not to destroy men's lives, but to save them;" and while they acted on the same hallowed prin

ciples, the banner of the cross was unsullied, and its triumph were the conquests of righteousness and peace.

The alliance of civil government with the Christian church was both

the effect and the cause of corruption. Already its purity had been impaired, and its simplicity abandoned, or the union would have been impracticable. Its consummation, so devoutly to be deprecated, prepared the way for "all monstrous, all prodigious things;" and "the mystery of iniquity," in its secularity and intolerance, was the practical result.

It is an old adage, that the best things, when corrupted, become the greatest evils. For the same reason that an apostate from the faith in its purity or its influence is generally the most inveterate in his errors, or the most shameless in his profligacy; so when a Christian church is corrupted, and at the same time possesses the means of secular aggrandisement, it too often becomes a living illustration of the apocalyptic description, "a synagogue of Satan;" and resembles the "accuser of the brethren" in his impurity and his malevolence. It is no violation of candour or of truth, to affirm that the Church of Rome has been for ages the seat and centre of such corruptions; the symbol of intolerance, the fertile source of pollution to all the states and communities within the range of her unhallowed domination. And what a tremendous libel is the very name, which, under the sanction, and by the direct appointment of that church, has been appropriated to some of the most infernal confederacies that ever disgraced religion, or desolated the world? A CRUSADE! an exterminating war under the banner of the cross! The sign of mercy converted to the pur

(See Caranza, Sum. Concil. p. 404 -602.) The writ for burning heretics among the ancient precedents of our own law, and thought by some to be as old as the common law itself, may, be traced to the general prevalence of the maxim, that heresy was a crime which could be punished by the secular power, under the direction of the ecclesiastical authorities.*

We cannot feel surprised at the scenes of persecution exhibited in the records of the Church of Rome, after such enactments as these. They directly tended to enslave the minds as well as the bodies of men, and prepared the way for that reign of ignorance and superstition which, during so many ages, afflicted and desolated the world. It was under the influence of these principles that the first Crusades were commenced, for the recovery of the Holy Land from the dominion of the Saracens. The fanaticism of Peter the hermit, excited the people of every class to rally round the standard of the cross! Pope Urban convened a council at Placentia, A. D. 1095, and two hundred bishops, and four thousand ecclesiastics were present on the occasion. The "holy war" was resolved upon, and plenary indulgences were promised to all who should engage in the work of exterminating the infidels. Such indulgences secured to their possessors the remission of all ecclesiastical penalties and restrictions in this world, and released them from the fires of purgatory hereafter.

*

The contest between the Cross and the Koran continued nearly two centuries, and prepared the way for other expeditions of vengeance. The augmented power and influence of the Roman Pontiff, resulting from these most unholy wars, disposed them to future deeds of darkness, and secured the means

* Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. iv.

b. 4. c. 4.

of effecting them. In the vallies of Piedmont and Savoy there existed numerous christian churches, known in ecclesiastical history by various names, some of which were evidently of a local character, and others were terms of reproach, not unlike those which the vocabulary of slander has supplied in succeeding ages, against the "sufferers for righteousness' sake." Of late years, much interesting information has been brought before the attention of the public, both in reference to the former history of the Vaudois and the state of their descendants in our own times. The most ample details respecting their origin and early state, will be found Jones's History; and we refer with great satisfaction to his inquiries, though we cannot adopt all his opinions and conclusions. That they were amongst the first real Protestants, Nonconformists, and Puritans, in relation to the corrupt hierarchy of the Church of Rome, is

in

unquestionable. Their simplicity and spirituality, their integrity and industry, their happiness and pro sperity, were, however, those very features of their character and condition that excited the jealousy and malevolence of the Roman Pontiff and his associates. The excellencies and graces by which they were adorned presented a contrast to their vices, and formed an unanswerable indictment, which they could resist only by intolerance. The fruits of their economy and liberality, in the flourishing districts where they resided, provoked the cupidity and rapacity of their enemies; and, like the infernal spirit who beheld our first parents in the enjoyment of virtuous felicity, they were maddened and infuriated by the sight of their bliss. They might have addressed the intended victims of their rage and envy in the language of the arch-apostate to the unconscious slumberers amidst the bower of Eden.

"Ye little think how nigh Your change approaches, when all these delights

Will vanish, and deliver you to woe,

offered to us by its modern advocates, and especially by that respectable body the English Catholics. It becomes, therefore, a proper, and even a necessary, subject of

joy!"

The volume before us, translated from Sismondi's History, now in the course of publication at Paris, exhibits in full detail the successive confederacies, under the appointment and sanction of the Roman Pontiff, against the Albigenses. There can be no doubt that they were of the same general principles with the Waldenses, and resembled them in their religious and civil character. That portion of the history which respects these confessors and sufferers in the cause of truth, constitutes, as the translator has expressed it, 66 a most interesting episode in that valuable work; and the volume here offered to the public exhibits that part of Sismondi's narrative, with only so much of the general history as may serve for its connexion and illustration." Of this portion of history, the translator remarks

"It commences with the thirteenth century, and comprises a period of about forty years, detailing the progress in civilization, liberty, and religion, of the fine countries in the south of France, and the destruction of that liberty and civilization, the devastation and ruin of those countries, and the extinction of those early efforts for religious reformation, through the power and policy of the church of Rome. It relates the establishment of the Inquisition, and the provisions by which this merciless tribunal was adapted to become, for ages, the grand engine of domination to that ambitious and persecuting power. And it marks the complete establishment of civil and ecclesiastical despotism, by the surrender of all those states, with their rights and liberties, to the dominion and controul of the French monarch, under the direction of the Roman pontiff. When therefore the curtain at last falls upon this sad tragedy, it seems as if the night of ignorance and tyranny had closed upon the nations for ever.

"The attentive reader cannot fail to remark, that these events give a very different representation of the principles of the church of Rome, from that which is

preters of the principles of the church to which they belong, or whether we are to seek for their interpretation in the recorded acts and authentic documents of the church itself. They represent the authority of the church of Rome as merely spiritual, and extending only to its voluntary subjects, and assert that the natural rights of men, and the authority of civil governments, are equally beyond its controul yet it must be remarked, on the one hand, that the church of Rome allows of no private interpretation of its dogmas, where the church has decided; and on the other, that the history of its proceedings by no means justifies their representations. The church may not indeed, authority by which it has heretofore tramin future, ever be able to resume that pled on the rights both of subjects and rulers; but should it ever again be in a situation to act as its own interpreter of posed that it would then recognize the its own claims, it is scarcely to be sup

limits which either individuals or bodies in its communion had attempted to place to the exercise of its sovereign will, We are, therefore, under the necessity, as far as it may be desirable for us to become acquainted with the claims of the church of Rome, to seek them, not from private opinions, but from its own authoritative and deliberate acts.

"We are also bound to consider, that the dogmas of the church of Rome are not subjects of mere speculation. She has always claimed a divine right of imposing then on the minds of men, and has, at different times, attained to a power of enforcing these claims, unexampled in the history of mankind. With those religions dogmas by which she still subjugates the souls of her votaries, we, who after two centuries of conflict have withdrawn from her domination, have no concern, any further than she is. amenable for them to the bar of reason and truth; but, besides the controul which she exercises over those of her own communion, she has ever maintained certain rights towards those whom she is pleased to designate as beretics, and has often exercised those rights with a severity, for which no authority is to be found, except in her own traditions. We have, therefore, on our part, a right to demand a renunciation of those claims, as public and authoritative as the exercise of them has ever been, or to guard ourselves against their repetition, hy such prudential and cautionary measures, as the circumstances of the times may require."pp. vi-ix.