Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/371

 ARNOLD. 33$ maintained in his fermons, that thofc ecclcfiaftics who had any eftates of their own, or held any lands, wore entirely cut off from the leaf* hopes of falvation : that the clergy ou;;ht tog"?]? . . fHibliotn. lublift upon the alms and voluntary contributions of des Ault . urJ Chriltians ; and that all other revenues belonged to princcb Ecclcfuft. and (rates, in order to be difpofed of amongft the laity as they tor ^ x - thougtu pioper. He maintained alfo feveral herefies, with p< regard to bapcifm and the Lord's fupper. Otto Frifingenfis and St. Bernard have drawn his character in very ftrong colours: the former te'L us, that he had wit, addrefs, andDeReb.geft. eloquence; but that he was extremely fond of peculiar and Fnd - lib - new opinions; that he affumed a religious habit on purpofe to impoiV upon mankind more effectually, and in fheep's cloathing carried the difpcfuion of a wolf, tearing every one as he plealed with the utinoil fury, and exerting a particular enmity againtt the c'ergy. " Would to God," fays St. Ber- nard, * 4 That his doctrine was as holy, as his life is ftrid ! " Brefcia is a nun that neither eats nor drinks ; who, like " the devil, is hungry and thirfty after the blood of fouls ; " who goes to and fro upon the earth, doing among ftran- " gers what he cannot do amongft his countrymen; wholngenious " ranges like a tearing lion, always feeking whom he may de-^ ^ 1 ^ " vour; an enemy to the crofs of Chriit, an author of dil- co i| e a e d by " cords, an inventor of fchifms, a difturber of the publicBcuhoursm peace : he is a man, whofe converfation has nothing but " fweetnefs, whole dodrine nothing but poifon in it; a man p. I9S. " who has the head of a dove, and the tail of a fcorpion." He engaged a great number of perfons in his party, who were diftinguifhed by his name, and proved very formidable to the popes. His doctrines rendered him fo obnoxious, that he was condemned in the year 1 1 39, in a council of near a thou- fand prelates, held in the church of St. John Lateran at Rome, under pope Innocent II. Upon this he left Italy, and retired to Swiflerland. After the death of that pope, he re- turned to Italy, and went to Rome; where he raifed a fedi- tion againft hugenius III. and afterwards againft Hadrian IV. who laid the people of Rome under an interdict, till they had baniihed Arnold and his followers. This had its defired effedl : the Romans feizcd upon the houfes which the Ar- noldifts had foititied, and obliged them to retire to Otricoli in Tufcany ; where they were received with the utmoft^ affe<5bon by the people, who confidered Arnold as a prophet. However, he was feized fome time after by cardinal Gerard, and, notwithftanding the efforts 'of the vifcounts of
 * Would you know what fort of man this is? Arnold of