615. In the preceding year he had refused an invitation from Clotaire II., who had become sole king of France, to return to his old abode at Luxeuil.h

Both Luxeuil and Bobbio became the parents of many monasteries in other quarters. But the most celebrated of Columban's followers was his countryman Gall, who had been his pupil from boyhood, and had accompanied him in all his fortunes, until compelled by illness to remain behind, when his master passed into Italy. Gall founded in the year 614 the famous monastery which bears his name, and is honoured as the apostle of Switzerland.* He died in 627.m

Baron. 615. 15; Schröckh, xvii. ii., and Pertz, ii.; also Neander, Ch. 430; Neand. v. 46. Hist. v. 45-9, and Memorials, 450; Ozanam, 120-7; Rettberg, ii, 40-8.

h Jonas, 60-1.

Fleury, xxxvii. 8.

Pagi, xi. 236.

For lives of St. Gall, see Mabillon,

CHAPTER II.

MAHOMET-THE MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY.

A.D. 610-718.

PHOCAS, after having earned universal detestation during a reign of eight years, was dethroned and put to death in 610, by Heraclius, son of the exarch of Africa.a The new emperor found himself involved in a formidable war with Chosroes II., king of Persia. Chosroes had formerly been driven from his kingdom, had found a refuge within the empire, and had been restored by the arms of Maurice.b On receiving the announcement that Phocas had ascended the throne, he declared himself the avenger of his benefactor; he invaded the empire, repeatedly defeated the usurper's disorderly troops, and had advanced as far as Antioch, which fell into his hands immediately after the elevation of Heraclius. The war for which the murder of Maurice had been the pretext, did not end on the fall of his murderer. Chosroes overran Syria and Palestine; with one division of his force he conquered Egypt, and carried devastation as far as Tripoli, while another advanced to Chalcedon, and for ten years presented to the people of Constantinople the insulting and alarming spectacle of a hostile camp on the opposite shore of the Bosphorus.

A.D. 611.

A.D. 611622.

Between the Avars on the European side and the Persians on the east, Heraclius was reduced to extreme distress. He had almost resolved to return to Africa, which had recovered much of its old prosperity, and was then the most flourishing province of the empire; but the patriarch of Constantinople obliged him to swear that he would not forsake those who had received him as their sovereign. At length, after having in vain attempted to appease Chosroes by offering to become his tributary, the emperor determined on the almost desperate enterprise of carrying the war into the enemy's country. He raised a large sum of money by loans-borrowing the plate and other

A.D. 615.

wealth of churches on a promise of repayment with usury. With this money he levied an army, and, having secured the forbearance of the Avars, he boldly made his way into the heart of Persia. In six brilliant campaigns he recovered the provinces which had been lost. Chosroes fled before him, and, in 628, was deposed and put to death by his own son Siroes, who was glad to make peace with the Romans."

A.D. 622-7.

The war had on each side been one of religion. Chosroes was aided in his attack on Jerusalem by 26,000 Jews, collected from all quarters. On the capture of the city he destroyed churches, defiled the holy places, plundered the treasures amassed from the offerings of pilgrims during three centuries, and carried off into Persia the patriarch Zacharias, with the relic which was venerated as the True Cross. It is said that 90,000 Christians were slain on this occasion, and that many of these were bought by the Jews for the purpose of butchering them." A great number of Christians, however, found safety by flying into Egypt, and were received with extraordinary kindness by John, patriarch of Alexandria, whose charities earned for him the title of "the Almsgiver." Heraclius, in his turn, retaliated on the religion of Persia, by destroying its temples, especially that at Thebarmes, the birthplace of Zoroaster, and quenching the sacred fire. He restored the cross with great triumph to Jerusalem, and the event was commemorated by a new festival-the "Exaltation of the Cross." And the edict of Hadrian against the Jews was renewed-forbidding them to approach within three miles of their holy city."

" m

While Chosroes was warring against the religion of the empire, a more formidable and lasting scourge of Christendom had arisen in Arabia. The prevailing religion of that country is said to

f Theophanes, 46€; Pagi, xi. 151; Art de Vérif. iv. 351; Gibbon, iv. 30910; Schlosser, 52-9.

Niceph. Cpol. 14; Pagi, xi. 226-8; Gibbon, iv. 314-325; Finlay, i. 423-5.

Theophanes, 463 (who gives other instances of Jewish hatred, p. 457); Baron. 614. 32; Gibbon, iv. 304-5. That the story is probably exaggerated, see Schröckh, xix. 299.

i Vita S. Joh. Eleëmos. ap. Rosweyd, i. 6 (Patrol. lxxiii.)

Niceph. Cpol. 12; Gibbon, iv. 3146; Finlay, i. 424.

Niceph. Cpol. 15; Theophanes, 273, ed. Paris; Baron. 627. 23-9; Gib

bon, iv. 326-7. There is, however, a difference as to this between the Greek and the Latin churches. See Pagi, xi. 238; Fleury, xxxvii. 34.

" Dean Milman (Hist. of Jews, iii. 237-240, and n. on Gibbon, iv. 327) questions the stories as to further punishments inflicted on the Jews for the atrocities which they had committed under cover of the Persian power.

• In addition to my usual authorities I have consulted Sale's Koran,' Lond. 1734; Ockley's History of the Saracens,' Camb. 1757; White's Bampton Lectures for 1784,' Lond. 1811; Remarks on the Character of Mahammad,'

D

have been founded on a belief in the unity of God; but this belief was darkened and practically superseded by a worship of the heavenly bodies, of angels, and of idols. The ancient sanctuary of the nation, the Caaba, or holy house of Mecca, contained a number of images answering to that of days in the year. Other religions also existed in Arabia. Judaism had become the faith of some tribes; orthodox Christian missionaries had made converts; and members of various sects, such as Gnostics, Manicheans, Nestorians, and Monophysites, had found in that country a refuge from the unfriendly laws of the empire. Thus there were abundant materials within the reach of any one who might undertake to become the founder of a new system.

г

Mahomet was born at Mecca, either in 570 or the following year. His temper was naturally mystical and enthusiastic; he was subject from an early age to fits of epilepsy, which were supposed to proceed from an influence of evil spirits; and in the course of his mental conflicts he was often reduced to a state of melancholy depression which suggested the thought of suicide." He appears to have become possessed with a ruling idea of the Divine unity, and with a vehement indignation against idolatry. Every year, according to a custom which was not uncommon among his countrymen, he withdrew to a cave in a mountain, and spent some time in religious solitude; and in his lonely musings he was gradually wrought up to a belief that he was especially called by

by Col. Vans Kennedy, in 'Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society,' iii. 398-448, Lond. 1823; Forster's Mahometanism Unveiled,' Lond. 1829; Möhler, Ueber das Verhältniss des Islams zum Evangelium,' in vol. i. of his Essays; Döllinger, Muhammeds Religion nach ihrer inneren Entwickelung und ihrem Einflusse auf das Leben der Völker,' Munich, 1838; Weil's Mahommed der Prophet,' Stuttg. 1843; Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur l'Hist. des Arabes,' Paris, 1847; Irving's Mahomet and his Successors,' Lond. 1850; Sprenger's Life of Mahommad,' Pt. I. (reaching to the Hegira), Allahabad, 1851; Muir's 'Life of Mahomet,' Lond. 1858-61; Encyclopædia Britannica, 8th edition, art. on 'Mohammed,' by the Rev. J. G. Cazenove; Renan, Etudes d'Histoire Réligieuse,' ed. 3, Paris, 1858; Stanley on 'The Eastern Church,' Lect. viii. The first volume of an enlarged biography (in German), by Dr. Sprenger, has just appeared (1861). The attempts at a more correct exhibition

of the prophet's name are so various, that, so long as no one of them is generally adopted, it appears safest to follow the most unpretending manner of spelling it—a rule which I have usually observed as to other names.

P Sale, Introd. 14-21; Gibbon, v. 1722; Weil, 20. Dr. Sprenger (p. 103) seems to question the monotheistic foundation.

4 See Koran, c. iii. pp. 47-8; Caussin de Perceval, i. 270.

Sale, Introd. 22-4; Gibbon, v. 20-1. See Gibbon, v. 24, with Milman's notes; Weil, 31; Sprenger, 75. M. Caussin de Perceval (i. 283), Mr. Cazenove (299), and Mr. Muir (i. 14) are for 570.

X

God to be an instrument for the propagation of the true faith, and was favoured with revelations from heaven. The 'Koran,' in which his oracles are preserved, has much in common with both the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures; but it would seem that Mahomet was not acquainted with either the Old or the New Testament that he rather drew his materials, more or less directly, from such sources as Talmudical legends, apocryphal Gospels, and other heretical writings, mixed with the old traditions of Syria and Arabia. His own account of the work was, that its contents were written from eternity on the "preserved table" which stands before the throne of God; that a copy was brought down to the lowest heaven by the angel Gabriel (whom Mahomet seems to have gradually identified with the Holy Spirit a), and that the sections of it were revealed according as circumstances required. The charge of inconsistency between the different parts was guarded against by the convenient principle that a later revelation abrogated so much of the earlier as disagreed with it. By way of proof that he had not forged these revelations, which are always uttered in the name of God himself, Mahomet repeatedly insists on the contrast between his own illiteracy and the perfection of the book, both as to purity of style and as to substance; he challenges objectors to produce any work either of men or of genii which can be compared with it." The oracles of the Koran were noted down as they proceeded from the prophet's mouth; and after his death they were collected into one body, although without any regard to the order in which they had been delivered."

The religion thus announced was styled Islam—a word which means submission or resignation to the will of God. Its single

Gibbon, v. 27; Sprenger, 106-111; Muir, ii. 55; and c. iii.

This word signifies "the reading, or rather that which ought to be read," and is applied either to the whole book or to any particular section of it. Sale, Introd. p. 56.

White, 268; Kennedy, 428; Milman, ii. 25-6; Muir, ii. 185, 288, 306, 309. Mr. Forster (c. viii.) exhibits a collection of parallels between the Koran and the Scriptures, many of which are very striking; but this, of course, does not prove that Mahomet drew immediately from the Bible, and Mr. Forster himself declines to give a judgment on the question (ii. 75. See Döllinger, 30-1). Mr. Muir thinks that the prevailing exaggeration of reverence for

b Koran, Cc. 81, 85, 97; Sale, 64; Gibbon, v. 31-3; Muir, ii. 137. e Ch. xvi. p. 223.

d Koran, c. ii. p. 3; c. x. p. 170; c. xii. p. 176; c. xvi. p. 223; c. xvii. p. 236; c. xxix. p. 328; and elsewhere.

e Muir, i. Introd. 3-13. A translation, arranged according to the dates of the chapters, has been published by the Rev. J. M. Rodwell (Lond. 1862); comp. Muir, ii. 318-320; iii. 311-2.

f Sale, Introd. 70, and n. on Koran, p. 36; Sprenger, 168-9.