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RanarJiS on Mr. Bower's Account uf the Manichees. 4o5
But is not that a new charge? Is nut this different from
Avhat we have been considerin"- '/
' The iManichees abandoned
' themselves, in the celebration of the eucharist, to tlic most
' impure and infamous practices.' Tiiose expressions seem
to me to imply promiscuous lewdness, or the general practice
of impurity at their eucharist. But j)opc Leo, as we have
seen, speaks only of ' one girl debauched by a youth,' for
a certain j)urpose. And in a like manner August, de Hier.
cap. 4(1. T. bi.
But Mr. Bower luxs some other evidence beside that of the
fathers, and says, ' it has been proved by unexceptionable
' witnesses, and has been owned by themselves.' 1 suppose
Mr. B. may have an eye to a passage in Augustine, which is
to this purj)ose: ' it" is said that some of them have con-
' fessed it before magistrates, not only in Paphlagonia, but
' likewise in Gaul. This I heard at Rome from a catholic
' christian.' Upon which I would observe, first, that
Augustine does not there speak of ' the 31anichees aban-
' doning themselves to impure practices,' but of a particular
fact, like to that mentioned by Leo. Secondly, Mr. B 's
expressions are too strong and positive. Augustine only
says that he had heard such a thing from a catholic at Rome.
Thirdly, this fact, or these facts, are laid at reniote places.
If Augustine bad had proofs of them at home, or near at
hand, he needed not to have gone so far as Paphlagonia and
Gaul in quest of them. Fourthly, Mr. B. speaks of its being"
' proved and owned by themselves before civil magistrates
' in Italy and xAfrica.' Which I do not see in Augustine, but
only Gaul and Paphlagonia; unless some other passage be
also referred to.
Mr. B. concludes the note upon which I have made these
animadversions, saying :
' The Waldenses, who sprung- up
' in the twelfth century, were stigmatized by their enemies
' with the odious name of Manichees, but that then* doctrine
* was difl^erent from that of the Manichees, nay, that it was
' altogether orthodox, 1 will show in a more proper place.'
When Mr. B. comes to that part of his work, I suppose
he will have the task of showing, not only (hat the Waldenses
were unjustly stigmatized with the Manichaean doctrine,
but likewise, that they were not guilty of the impure
and infimous practices generally imputed to the ^Manichees.
And perhaps he may also discern at length, that those crimes
were unjustly charged upon the real Manichees, or such as
" Hoc se facere quidam confess! esse in publico judicio peihibentur, non
tantum in PaphlagoniA, sed etiam in Gallia, sicut a quodam Romse christiano
catholico audivi. De Natura Boni. c. 47. T. 8.