HISTORY OF THE SABBATH by John Nevins Andrews

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 13, 1862

HISTORY OF THE SABBATH.

By John Nevins Andrews

(Continued.)

TRACES OF THE SABBATH DURING THE DARK AGES.

ANOTHER class of witnesses to the truth during the dark ages, bore the name of Cathari, that is, Puritans. Jones speaks of them as follows:

"They were a plain, unassuming, harmless, and industrious race of Christians, patiently bearing the cross after Christ, and both in their doctrines and manners, condemning the whole system of idolatry and superstition which reigned in the church of Rome, placing true religion in the faith, hope and obedience of the gospel, maintaining a supreme regard to the authority of God in his word, and regulating their sentiments and practices by that divine standard. Even in the twelfth century their numbers abounded in the neighborhood of Cologne, in Flanders, the south of France, Savoy, and Milan. 'They were increased,' says Egbert, 'to great multitudes, throughout all countries.'"—Hist. Church, chap. iv, sec. iii.

That the Cathari did retain and observe the ancient Sabbath, is certified by their Romish adversaries. Dr. Allix quotes a Roman Catholic author of the twelfth century concerning three sorts of heretics, the Cathari, the Passagii, and the Arnoldistæ. Allix says:

"This Romish writer lays it down also as one of their opinions, 'that the law of Moses is to be kept according to the letter, and that the keeping of the Sabbath, Circumcision, and other legal observances, ought to take place. They hold also that Christ the Son of God is not equal with the Father, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, these three persons, are not one God and one substance; and as a surplus to their errors, they judge and condemn all the doctors of the church, and universally the whole Roman Church. Now since they endeavor to defend this their error by testimonies drawn from the New Testament and prophets, I shall with the assistance of the grace of Christ stop their mouths as David did Goliath's, with their own sword."'—Eccl. Hist. of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont, pp. 168, 169.

Dr. Allix quotes another Romish author to the same effect:

"Alanus attributes to the Cathari almost the very same opinions in his first book against heretics, which he wrote about the year 1192."—Id. p. 170.

These statements of their views are given in the uncandid language of their enemies. The charge that they observed circumcision will be noticed presently. Mr. Robinson represents these Passagii or Passaginians as a branch of the Waldenses. He says:

"It is very credible that the name Passageros or Pasagini was given to such of them as lived in or near the passes of the mountains, and who subsisted in part by guiding travelers or traveling themselves for trade."—Eccl. Researches, chap. x, pp. 305, 306.

Mosheim gives the following account of them:

"In Lombardy, which was the principal residence of the Italian heretics, there sprung up a very singular sect, known by the denomination of Passaginians, and also by that of the circumcised. They had the utmost aversion to the dominion and discipline of the church of Rome; but they were at the same time distinguished by two religious tenets that were peculiar to themselves. The first was a notion that the observation of the law of Moses, in everything except the offering of sacrifices, was obligatory upon Christians; in consequence of which they circumcised their followers, abstained from those meats the use of which was prohibited under the Mosaic economy, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath. The second tenet that distinguished this sect was advanced in opposition to the doctrine of three persons in the divine nature."—Eccl. Hist. cent. xii, part 2, chap. v, sec. xiv.

Mr. Benedict speaks of them as follows:

"The account of their practicing circumcision is undoubtedly a slanderous story forged by their enemies, and probably arose in this way: because they observed the seventh day they were called by the way of derision, Jews, as the Sabbatarians are frequently at this day; and if they were Jews, it followed of course that they either did or ought to, circumcise their followers. This was probably the reasoning of their enemies; and that they actually practiced the bloody rite is altogether improbable."—Hist. Bapt. Den., vol. 2, pp. 412–418, ed. 1813.

An eminent church historian, Michael Geddes, thus testifies:

"This fixing something that is justly abominable to all mankind upon her adversaries, has been the constant practice of the church of Rome."—Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Dampier, p. 168.

Of the origin of the Petrobrusians, we have the following account by Mr. Jones:

"But the Cathari or Puritans were not the only sect which, during the twelfth century, appeared in opposition to the church of Rome. About the year 1110, in the south of France, in the provinces of Languedoc and Provence, appeared Peter de Bruys, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, and exerting the most laudable effort to reform the abuses and remove the superstition which disfigured the beautiful simplicity of the gospel worship. His labors were crowned with abundant success. He converted a great number of disciples to the faith of Christ, and after a most indefatigable ministry of twenty years' continuance, he was burnt at St. Giles, a city of Languedoc in France, A. D. 1120, by an enraged populace, instigated by the clergy, who apprehended their traffic to be in danger from this new and intrepid reformer."—Hist. of the Church, chap. iv, sec. iii.

That this body of French Christians who in the very midnight of the dark ages witnessed for the truth in opposition to the Romish church were observers of the ancient Sabbath is expressly certified by Dr. Francis White, lord bishop of Ely. He was appointed by the king of England to write against the Sabbath in opposition to Brabourne who had appealed to the king in its behalf. To show that Sabbatic observance is contrary to the doctrine of the Catholic church—a weighty argument with an Episcopalian—he enumerates the various classes of heretics who had been condemned by the Catholic church for keeping holy the seventh day. Among these heretics he places the Petrobrusians:

"In St. Bernard's days it was condemned in the Petrobruysans."—Treatise of the Sabbath-day, p. 8, Lib. Am. Antig. Society, Worcester.

The Anabaptists are often referred to in the records of the dark ages. The term signifies rebaptizers, and was applied to them because they denied the validity of infant baptism. The designation is not accurate, however, because those persons whom they baptized, they considered as never having been baptized before, although they had been sprinkled or even immersed in infancy. This people have been overwhelmed in obloquy in consequence of the fanatical insurrection which broke out in their name in the time of Luther.

Of those engaged in this insurrection, Buck says:

"The first insurgents groaned under severe oppressions, and took up arms in defense of their civil liberties; and of these commotions the Anabaptists seem rather to have availed themselves, than to have been the prime movers. That a great part were Anabaptists seems indisputable; at the same time it appears from history that a great part also were Roman Catholics, and a still greater part of those who had scarcely any religious principles at all."—Theological Dict., art. Anabaptists.

This matter is placed in the true light by Stebbing:

"The overthrow of civil society, and fatal injuries to religion were threatened by those who called themselves Anabaptists. But large numbers appear to have disputed the validity of infant baptism who had nothing else in common with them, yet who for that one circumstance were overwhelmed with the obloquy, and the punishment richly due to a fanaticism equally fraudulent and licentious."—Hist. Church, vol. 1, pp. 183, 184.

The ancient Sabbath was retained and observed by a portion of the Anabaptists, or to use a more proper term, Baptists. Dr. Francis White thus testifies:

"They which maintain the Saturday Sabbath to be in force, comply with some Anabaptists."—Treatise of the Sabbath-day, p. 132. He cites Hist. Anabapt. lib. 6, p. 153.

Thus it is seen that within the limits of the old Roman empire, and in the midst of those countries that submitted to the rule of the pope, God reserved unto himself a people that did not bow the knee to Baal, and among these the Bible Sabbath was observed from age to age. We are now to search for the Sabbath among those who were never subjected to the Roman pontiff. In Central Africa, from the first part of the Christian era—perhaps from the time of the conversion of the Ethiopian officer of great authority Acts viii, 26–40—have existed the churches of Abyssinia and Ethiopia. About the time of the accession of the Roman bishop to supremacy they were lost sight of by the nations of Europe. "Encompassed on all sides," says Gibbon, "by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten." Dec. and Fall, chap. xlvii. In the early part of the sixteenth century they were again brought to the knowledge of the world by the discovery of Portuguese navigators. Undoubtedly they had, during this long period, been effected by the dense darkness of pagan and Mahometan errors with which they were encompassed; and in many respects they had lost the pure and spiritual religion of our divine Redeemer. A modern traveler says of them: "They had divers errors and many ancient truths."—Maxon's Hist. Sab. p. 33.

Michael Geddes says of them:

"The Abyssinians do hold the Scriptures to be the perfect rule of the Christian faith; inasmuch that they deny it to be in the power of a general council to oblige people to believe anything as an article of faith without an express warrant from thence."—Church Hist. of Ethiopia, p. 31.

They practice circumcision, but for other reasons than that of a religious duty.—Id. p. 96; Gibbon, chap. xv, note 25; chap. xlvii, note 160.

Geddes further states their views:

"Transubstantiation and the adoration of the consecrated bread in the sacrament, were what the Abyssinians abhorred. They deny purgatory, and know nothing of confirmation and extreme unction; they condemn graven images; they keep both Saturday and Sunday."—Church Hist. Ethiopia, pp. 34, 35; Purchas's Pilgrimage, book ii, chap. v.

Their views of the Sabbath are stated by the ambassador of the king of Ethiopia, at the court of Lisbon, in the following words, explaining their abstinence from all labor on that day:

"Because God, after he had finished the creation of the world, rested thereon; which day, as God would have it called the holy of holies, so the not celebrating thereof with great honor and devotion, seems to be plainly contrary to God's will and precept, who will suffer heaven and earth to pass away sooner than his word; and that especially, since Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. It is not therefore in imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to Christ, and his holy apostles, that we observe that day."—Ch. Hist. Eth. pp. 87, 88.

The ambassador states their reasons for first-day observance in these words:

"We do observe the Lord's day after the manner of other Christians in memory of Christ's resurrection." Id. ib.

He has no scripture to offer in support of this festival and evidently rested its observance upon tradition. This account was given by the ambassador in 1534. In the early part of the next century the emperor of Abyssinia was induced to submit to the pope in these words: "I confess that the pope is the vicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter, and the sovereign of the world. To him I swear true obedience, and at his feet I offer my person and kingdom."—Gibbon, chap. xlvii. No sooner had the Roman bishop thus brought the emperor to submit to him than that potentate was compelled to gratify the popish hatred of the Sabbath by an edict forbidding its further observance. In the words of Geddes, he set forth a proclamation prohibiting all his subjects upon severe penalties to observe Saturday any longer.—Ch. Hist. Eth. pp. 311, 312. Or as Gibbon expresses it, "The Abyssinians were enjoined to work and to play upon the Sabbath." But the tyranny of the Romanists after a terrible struggle caused their overthrow and banishment, and the restoration of the ancient faith. The churches resounded with a song of triumph, "that the sheep of Ethiopia were now delivered from the hyenas of the West;"; and the gates of that solitary realm were forever shut against the arts, the science and the fanaticism of Europe.—Gibbon, chap. xlvii.

The Armenians of the East Indies are peculiarly worthy of our attention. J. W. Mossul, M. R. I. A., says of the East Indian Christians:

"Remote from the busy haunts of commerce, or the populous seats of manufacturing industry, they may be regarded as the Eastern Piedmontese, the Vallois of Hindostan, the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth through revolving centuries, though indeed their bodies lay as dead in the streets of the city which they had once peopled."—Continental India, vol. ii, p. 120.

Geddes says of them:

"The three great doctrines of popery, the pope's supremacy, transubstantiation, the adoration of images, were never believed nor practiced at any time in this ancient apostolical church. I think one may venture to say that before the time of the late reformation, there was no church that we know of, no, not that of the Vaudois, that had so few errors in doctrine as the church of Malabar." He adds concerning those churches that were never in the bounds of the Roman empire: "It is in those churches that we are to meet with the least of the leaven of popery."—Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Diamper, preface.

Mr. Mossul further describes these Christians:

"The creed which these representatives of an ancient line of Christians cherished was not in conformity with papal decrees, and has with difficulty been squared with the thirty-nine articles of the Anglican episcopacy. Separated from the western world for one thousand years they were naturally ignorant of many novelties introduced by the councils and decrees of the Lateran: and their conformity with the faith and practice of the first ages, laid them open to the unpardonable guilt of heresy and schism, as estimated by the church of Rome. 'We are Christians and not idolaters,' was their expressive reply when required to do homage to the image of the virgin Mary. . . . La Croze states them at fifteen hundred churches, and as many towns and villages. They refused to recognize the pope and declared they had never heard of him; they asserted the purity and primitive truth of their faith since they came, and their bishops had for thirteen hundred years been sent from the place where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians."—Continental India, vol. ii, pp. 116, 117.

The Sabbatarian character of these Christians is hinted by Mr. Yeates. He says that Saturday "Amongst them is a festival day, agreeable to the ancient practice of the church."—East Indian Church History, pp. 134.

The same fact is further hinted by the same writer in the following language:

"The inquisition was set up at Goa in the Indies, at the instance of Francis Xavier [a famous Romish saint] who signified by letters to pope John III, Nov. 10, 1545, 'That the JEWISH WICKEDNESS spread every day more and more in the parts of the East Indies subject to the kingdom of Portugal, and therefore he earnestly besought the said king, that to cure so great an evil he would take care to send the office of the inquisition into those countries.'"—Id., pp. 139, 140.

In other words this Jesuit missionary desired the pope and the king of Portugal, to establish the inquisition in that part of the Indies subject to Portugal, in order to root out the Sabbath from those ancient churches. The inquisition was established in answer to this prayer, and Xavier was subsequently canonized as a saint! Nothing can more clearly show the malignity of the Roman pontiff toward the Sabbath of the Lord; and nothing more clearly illustrates the kind of men that he canonizes as saints.

Since the time of Xavier, the East Indies have fallen under British rule. A distinguished clergyman of the church of England some years since visited the British empire in India, for the purpose of acquainting himself with these churches. He gave the following deeply interesting sketch of these ancient Christians, and in it particularly marks their Sabbatarian character:

"The history of the Armenian church is very interesting. Of all the Christians in Central Asia, they have preserved themselves most free from Mahometan and papal corruptions. The pope assailed them for a time with great violence, but with little effect. The churches in lesser Armenia indeed consented to an union, which did not long continue; but those in Persian Armenia maintained their independence; and they retain their ancient Scriptures, doctrines, and worship to this day. 'It is marvelous,' says an intelligent traveler who was much among them, 'how the Armenian Christians have preserved their faith, equally against the vexatious oppression of the Mahometans, their sovereigns, and against the persuasions of the Romish church, which for more than two centuries has endeavoured, by missionaries, priests and monks, to attach them to her communion. It is impossible to describe the artifices and expenses of the court of Rome to effect this object, but all in vain.'

"The Bible was translated into the Armenian language in the fifth century, under very auspicious circumstances, the history of which has come down to us. It has been allowed by competent judges of the language, to be a most faithful translation. La Croze calls it the 'Queen of Versions.' This Bible has ever remained in the possession of the Armenian people; and many illustrious instances of genuine and enlightened piety occur in their history. . . . .

"The Armenians in Hindostan are our own subjects. They acknowledge our government in India, as they do that of Sophi in Persia; and they are entitled to our regard. They have preserved the Bible in its purity; and their doctrines are, as far as the author knows, the doctrines of the Bible. Besides, they maintain the solemn observance of Christian worship throughout our empire, on the seventh day, and they have as many spires pointing to heaven among the Hindoos as we ourselves. Are such a people then entitled to no acknowledgment on our part, as fellow Christians? Are they forever to be ranked by us with Jews, Mahometans, and Hindoos?"—Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia, pp. 159, 160.

These facts clearly attest the continued observance of the Sabbath during the whole period of the dark ages. The church of Rome was indeed able to exterminate the Sabbath from its own communion, but it was retained by the true people of God who were measurably hidden from the papacy in the wilds of Central Europe; while those African and East Indian churches that were never within the limits of the pope's dominion, have steadfastly retained the Sabbath to the present day.