and Epiphanius mentions a sect of heretics called τρατιώτικοι, or military, (as there is now in America a sect of "fighting Quakers,") of whom nothing is known but the name, which is reasonably supposed to have been a term of reproach, fastened on them by other Christians, for their serving, or holding it lawful to serve in the armies.

Tarachus, the martyr, says in his examination, "When I was a soldier, I was called Victor ;because I was a Christian, I renounced the service."

Lardner remarks on a work ascribed to Archelaus, a bishop of Mesopotamia, apparently written in the fourth century, and whose author "speaks more like an Unitarian than a Catholic," that he seems to have condemned all war as unlawful; for, relating that some Roman soldiers, charmed with the piety and generosity of Marcellus, were induced to embrace the Christian religion, he says that "they immediately forsook the profession of arms."

The reader may find much interesting matter on this subject in Moyle's "Letters concerning the Thundering Legion," who, after citing Athenagoras, Minucius Felix, Irenæus, Tatian, &c., observes, "All these authors do directly, or in consequence, deny the lawfulness of war; and not only represent it as their own private opinion, but as agreeable to the universal belief and

practice of that age. And I do not see what can be reasonably opposed to the authority of every individual writer of the second century, who wrote near the age of Antoninus.'

Through what has been aptly termed the millenium of the powers of darkness, those who were called Christians indulged plentifully in deeds of blood and desolation. Yet, even here sometimes a faint flash darts across the gloom. A synod held in England under William the Conqueror, declared that those who fought only for hopes of a reward, ought to do penance as for murder; following, probably, the decision of St. Augustine, "Militare non est delictum, sed propter prædam militare peccatum est."

With the first symptoms of dissent from the corruptions of the Church of Rome, was coupled a protest against the iniquity of war. The Paterines, or Gazari, the Puritans of Italy in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, kept alive the cause of truth, liberty, and benevolence. Many of them were Antitrinitarians, but they allowed great diversity of opinions, and held that a church had no power to frame any constitu→ tions; that it was not right to take oaths; that the benefits of society belonged alike to all the members of it; that it was not lawful to bear arms, or to kill mankind.

To these succeeded other heralds of the Reformation, who, under the names of Waldenses,

Albigenses, &c., were scattered over a great part of Europe, and of whom the following account is given by Robinson: "Authentic records in France assure us that a people of a certain description were driven from thence in the twelfth century. Bohemian records, of equal authenticity, inform us, that some of the same description arrived in Bohemia at the same time, and settled near a hundred miles from Prague, at Satz and Lann, on the river Eger, just on the borders of the kingdom. Almost two hundred years after, another undoubted record of the same country mentions a people of the same description, some as burnt at Prague, and others as inhabiting the borders of the kingdom; and a hundred and fifty years after that, we find a people of the same description settled by connivance in the metropolis, and in several other parts of the kingdom. About one hundred and twenty years lower, we find a people in the same country, living under the protection of law on the estate of Prince Lichtenstein, exactly like all the former, and about thirty or forty thousand in number. The religious character of this people is so very different from that of all others, that the likeness is not easily mistaken. They had no priests, but taught one another. They had no private property, for they held all things jointly. They executed no offices, and neither exacted nor took oaths. They bore no arms, and rather chose to

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suffer than resist wrong. They held every thing called religion in the Church of Rome in abhorrence, and worshipped God only by adoring his perfections, and endeavouring to imitate his goodness. They thought Christianity wanted no comment, and they professed the belief of that by being baptized, and their love to Christ and one another by receiving the Lord's Supper. They aspired at neither wealth nor power, and their plan was industry. We have shewn how highly probable it is that Bohemia afforded them work, wages, and a secure asylum, which was all they wanted. If these be facts, they are facts that do honour to human nature; they exhibit in the great picture of the world, a few small figures in a back ground, unstained with the blood, and unruffled with the disputes, of their fellowcreatures. It was their wisdom in their times not to come forward to deliver apologies to the world, and creeds, with flattering prefaces, to princes; the turbulence of the crowd would have caused the still voice of reason not to be heard." (Ecclesiastical Researches, p. 527.)

Some of this class, probably from Flanders or Germany, where they had obtained the name of Lollards, came to England, and their tenets on the subject of war were adopted by the great and venerable Wickliffe. "He seems," says Priestley, "to have thought it wrong to take away the life of man on any account, and that

war was utterly unlawful, and much more, war in the name of religion, such as the Popes promoted during the great schism. When,' he

said, 'will the proud priest of Rome grant indulgences to mankind to live in peace and charity, as he now does to fight and kill one another?" "

At the time of the Reformation, the leaders of the Polish Unitarians, both Arian and Socinian, ranged themselves on the side of humanity, declaring against both war and capital punishments, and objecting to fill the office of magistrate, on account of the oaths required, and because it might involve the necessity of bearing arms and shedding blood. "These notions of the morality of the gospel would not suffer the judge Niemoiovius, though a nobleman, to continue on the bench, and he resigned his office." There were some differences of opinion amongst them on these subjects; but while many held the unlawfulness of war altogether, none seem to have conceded more than that arms might be resorted to in self-defence, according to the very strictest interpretation of that expression. Thus far the continental Socinians were generally agreed. Ruarus, of Amsterdam, alluding to the difficulty arising from the prevalence of wars and capital punishments, remarks, that it was harder for a Christian to fill the office of a magistrate, especially of a chief magistrate, than