e fifteenth century. AEneas Sylvius, p. 407; Spondanus, ad an. 1460;
Mosheim.

[745] There has been so prevalent a disposition among English divines to
vindicate not only the morals and sincerity, but the orthodoxy of these
Albigenses, that I deem it necessary to confirm what I have said in the
text by some authorities, especially as few readers have it in their
power to examine this very obscure subject. Petrus Monachus, a
Cistercian monk, who wrote a history of the crusades against the
Albigenses, gives an account of the tenets maintained by the different
heretical sects. Many of them asserted two principles or creative
beings: a good one for things invisible, an evil one for things visible;
the former author of the New Testament, the latter of the Old. Novum
Testamentum benigno deo, vetus vero maligno attribuebant; et illud
omnino repudiabant, praeter quasdam auctoritates, quae de Veteri
Testamento Novo sunt insertae, quas ob Novi reverentiam Testamenti
recipere dignum aestimabant. A vast number of strange errors are imputed
to them, most of which are not mentioned by Alanus, a more dispassionate
writer. Du Chesne, Scriptores Francorum, t. v. p. 556. This Alanus de
Insulis, whose treatise against heretics, written about 1200, was
published by Masson at Lyons, in 1612, has left, I think, conclusive
evidence of the Manicheism of the Albigenses. He states their argument
upon every disputed point as fairly as possible, though his refutation
is of course more at length. It appears that great discrepancies of
opinion existed among these heretics, but the general tenor of their
doctrines is evidently Manichean. Aiunt haeretici temporis nostri quod
duo sunt principia rerum, principium lucis et principium tenebrarum, &c.
This opinion, strange as we may think it, was supported by Scriptural
texts; so insufficient is a mere acquaintance with the sacred writings
to secure unlearned and prejudiced minds from the wildest perversions of
their meaning! Some denied the reality of Christ's body; others his
being the Son of God; many the resurrection of the body; some even of a
future state. They asserted in general the Mosaic law to have proceeded
from the devil, proving this by the crimes committed during its
dispensation, and by the words of St. Paul, "the law entered that sin
might abound." They rejected infant baptism, but were divided as to the
reason; some saying that infants could not sin, and did not need
baptism; others, that